A Prayer for Enemies

Prayer of the Week

This week’s prayer needs a bit of commentary. I feel it might come in handy for some of us in light of recent events. Use it for your political opponents, for personal grudges, for anyone toward whom you may feel the burden of resentment or the sting of betrayal. I especially recommend praying for those public figures and political coalitions who, in our minds, represent some dark and irrevocable evil.

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:44 - 48

Whether you pray this exact prayer or use it as inspiration to improvise your own, do pray with your particular enemy or problem person in mind. Spend some time confiding in God about why you feel so let down, unloved, threatened, betrayed, or oppressed by this person (or group of people.) Allow the divine therapy to work on you until you feel at least a little comforted, a little less aggrieved, a little more open. Then proceed to the next step of trying to pray for the enemy—not that he or she will change their ways to suit you, but that he or she should experience peace, love, wellness, goodness, prosperity, joy. This is an act of love, a releasing of hardheartedness.

The difficult thing about praying for enemies is that the first few times, we might not feel fully sincere about it. We are doing it because we feel we ought to, or because we are carrying a great burden of resentment and would like to put it down. At first, the words don’t feel quite true.

Keep trying. A combination of things will happen when we put forth this effort in good-will.

• We begin to be reminded of the grace with which God has embraced us personally, and we will desire to allow that grace for others, as well.

• We will come to believe that we can afford to extend this grace, because our own coffers are so very full.

• The heart will begin to soften toward the enemy. Not necessarily because we realize that their actions aren’t so bad as we thought (although this may happen, depending upon the facts of the case), but because we begin to see them as human: a person with faults and flaws and hardships who is doing their best at the moment with the resources and knowledge that they have.

• We may begin to question why we ever felt so poisonously toward them. After all, they are possessed of the divine spark, same as us. God must see something in them, and who are we to question that?

• We may begin to see some actual good qualities in them, even if our previous assessment of their bad behaviors is objectively true. We might wonder if they are changing—perhaps even due to our prayer!? Or if they always had these qualities and we just never noticed because we were so stubbornly attached to our grievances with them.

• And/or we may begin to see in ourself the very qualities we objected to in the other. This gives us yet another opportunity to repent (have a change of heart/mind) and receive yet more divine love and grace.

• As we continue praying in earnest, our intentions become purified. We begin to feel sincere brotherhood with our former enemy, and to feel that we want, in a simple, clean, and softly flowing way, all the same good for them that we wish for ourselves.

This heart-softening is leading toward a unitive consciousness, which is the key to uniting heaven and earth; spirit and matter. That may sound very lofty and like an unachievable ideal from our present standpoint, but I have come to understand it as a major piece of the plan of salvation. It requires only our willingness to love.

Lord,

You have carved in me a channel
through which your love may flow freely
in any direction I choose.

It is well that I choose to love those who love me,
but as I have been given love enough to spare,
enough, indeed, to squander,
and as there are no enemies in my Father’s house,
I will choose, as well, to love
the one who does not love me.

I cast my own loving gaze upon this one, of my own accord,
forgiving my brother’s error,
seeing through and beyond this temporary infirmity,
all the way to the divine spark that is holy and good and eternal,
and I choose to love the whole entity.

Lord, let your love shine
just as brightly on this one
as it does on me,
and brighter.

Let my brother receive
every good thing
that I hope for myself,
and more.

Let peace and joy
be with this one, always
and may everlasting harmony blossom
from this seed of love.

Amen.

Previous Prayers of the Week: