Pray for my friend

For anyone who prays, please pray for my friend. He needs a lot of prayer. He suffers from bi-polar disorder, but he flatly refuses to take medication or pursue any course of treatment whatsoever. He is getting worse and worse. From time to time he hallucinates and believes he is hearing voices. He cannot hold down a job for more than about 3 weeks.

The only hope for him is a change of heart and a decision to be honest, to admit he has a mental problem and pursue some course of treatment. That is why the only thing we can do is pray. He is an extremely brilliant person and he used to be an easy-going, fun, friendly guy. But now he is paranoid and thinks everyone trying to help him actually means some type of harm to him. It is intensely painful for me to watch him slowly lose his sanity and everything else besides.

The "Bad Dream Prayer" Works

If your kids are having scary dreams—or if you are suffering from nightmares yourself—this prayer really works. It's from Compline, and you can look up the Latin which is "Te Lucis Ante Terminum" The authorship is credited to Saint Ambrose, but there are disputes regarding whether or not he penned the chant.

Our two oldest kids were having at least one bad dream a night between them for a couple weeks. We started saying this prayer before bedtime and the bad dreams were drastically reduced—only one in about 8 days! The poetic English translation is very good and my 4-year-old can almost say it by memory. A Catholic Priest told my friend about this prayer a long time ago.

To Thee, before the close of day
Creator of the world, we pray
That with Thy wonted favor, Thou
Wouldst be our Guard and Keeper now.

From all ill dreams defend our eyes,
From nightly fears and fantasies:
Tread under foot our ghostly foe,
That no pollution we may know.

O Father, that we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ Thine only Son,
Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
Shall live and reign eternally.
Amen.

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