This prayer is written by someone in full-time paid ministry (Michel Quoist in "Prayers"). It is a painfully honest reminder  of the struggle which church staff and church leaders often endure. Read the prayer. Then, write a note of encouragement to a church staff member or church leader you know, thanking him or her for his/her ministry.

Here is the prayer:

Tonight, Lord, I am alone.

Little by little the sounds died down in the church,

The people went away,

And I came home,

Alone.

I passed people who were returning from a walk.

I went by the movie house that was disgorging its crowd.

I skirted cafe terraces where tired strollers were trying to prolong the pleasure of a Sunday holiday.

I bumped into youngsters playing on the sidewalk.

Youngsters, Lord,

Other people's youngsters, who will never be my own.

Here I am, Lord,

Alone.

The silence troubles me,

The solitude oppresses me.

Lord, I'm thirty-five years old,

A body made like others,

Arms ready for work,

A heart meant for love,

But I've given you all.

It's true, of course, that you needed it.

I've given you all, but it's hard, Lord.

It's hard to give one's body; it would like to give itself to others.

It's hard to love everyone and to claim no one.

It's hard to shake a hand and not want to retain it.

It's hard to inspire affection, only to give it to you.

It's hard to be nothing to oneself in order to be everything to others.

It's hard to be like others, among others, and to be other.

It's hard always to give without trying to receive.

It's hard to seek out others and to be, oneself, unsought.

It's hard to suffer from the sins of others, and yet be obliged to hear and bear them.

It's hard to be told secrets, and be unable to share them.

It's hard to carry others and never, even for a moment, be carried.

It's hard to sustain the feeble and never be able to lean on one who is strong.

It's hard to be alone,

Alone before everyone,

Alone before the world,

Alone before suffering,

death,

sin.

Son, you are not alone,

I am with you;

I am you.

For I neede another human instrument to continue my Incarnation and my Redemption.

Out of all eternity, I chose you,

I need you.

I need your hands to continue to bless,

I need your lips to continue to speak,

I need your body to continue to suffer,

I need you heart to continue to love,

I need you to continue to save.

Stay with me, son.

Here I am, Lord;

Here is my body,

Here is my heart,

Here is my soul.

Grant that I may be big enough to reach the world,

Strong enough to carry it,

Pure enough to embrace it without wanting to keep it.

Grant that I may be a meeting-place, but a temporary one,

A road taht does not end in itself, because everything to be gathered there, everything human, leads toward you.

Lord, tonight, while all is still and I feel sharply the sting of solitude,

While men devour my soul and I feel incapable of satisfying their hunger,

While the whole world presses on my shoulders with all its weight of misery and sin,

I repeat to you my "yes"---not in a burst of laughter, but slowly, clearly, humbly,

Alone, Lord, before you,

In the peace of the evening.