Prayer for By The Hand Kids

Aelred of Rievaulx, 12^th century:

"Teach my your servant, therefore, Lord, teach me, I pray you, by your Holy Spirit, how to devote myself to them and how to spend myself on their behalf. Give me, by your unutterable grace, the power to bear with their shortcomings patiently, to share their griefs in loving sympathy, and to afford them help according to their needs. Taught by your Spirit may I learn to comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak and raise the fallen; to be myself one with them in their weakness, one with them when they burn at causes of offence, one in all things with them, all things to all of them, that I may gain them all. Give me the power to speak the truth straightforwardly, and yet acceptably; so that they all may be built up in faith and hope and love, in chastity and lowliness, in patience and obedience, in spiritual fervor and submissiveness of mind. And, since you have appointed this blind guide to lead them, this untaught (woman) to teach, this ignorant one to rule them, for their sakes, O Lord, if not for mine, teach (her) whom you have made to be their teacher; lead (her) whom you have bidden to lead them, rule (her) who is their ruler. Teach me, therefore, sweet Lord, how to restrain the restless, comfort the discouraged, and support the weak. Teach me to suit myself to everyone according to his power of understanding or his lack of it, as time and place require, in each case, as you would have me to do."

Taken from Modern Psychopathologies, p. 36-37