Bless My Enemies

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. - Jesus, in Matthew 5:44-45

As you try to figure out what it means to do this deep work that Jesus commands, see if you can pray at least some of the following prayer.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them.

• Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, Serbian bishop who spoke out against Naziism in the early 1940s, was arrested, and taken to Dachau concentration camp.