Sometimes it can be difficult to be thankful when you feel miserable. That misery usually becomes worse when well 
meaning people remind you of what you should be thankful for. So, let me offer a prayer of gratitude for all who struggle with depression, or any other mental or emotional condition.
Dear Lord,
- Thank you for giving me the courage to get up and face another day, and the stamina to work for health.
- Thank you for holding me close when I have wanted to end my life, and for holding others who did die from depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia.
- Thank you also for understanding when I couldn’t get myself out of bed to go to mass or feared confession because the very thought of facing my sins only made me feel more unworthy of love.
- Thank you for providing the ability to hold up my head when people judged me, gossiped about me, or backed away during the times I became ill. Likewise, for granting me patience and understanding when those who saw me at my worst could not accept my health and so treated me as if I were still “fragile.”
- Thank you for teaching me how to carry my cross for love of you, focusing on you rather than my specific pains. I know I don’t do that perfectly but you don’t care and for that I am most grateful.
- Thank you for modern medicine, competent therapists and spiritual directors, understanding clergy, and Saints who had mental health difficulties. These can bolster my hope, lessen my sense of isolation, and even make me healthier.
- Thank you especially for those moments, days, and sometimes months of remission when joy and a clear mind return. These are a foretaste of what heaven will be like after I have finished fighting the good fight in faith and hope.
- Most of all thank you for accepting the offering of my imperfect, broken, and sick self at mass and responding by feeding and strengthening my soul with the Eucharist.
For all these things I thank you. Amen.
Credits:
Article: Depressed and Catholic
Image: Friar Musings
Photographs and Memories 
Ah Perpetua – It is nearly 6 months later and I still love this poem of yours…it means so much.
So good to hear from you Therese. I am glad that you love this poem, I do, too. It’s a very helpful thought came from a Friar.
Beautiful prayer, Perpetua. Thank you for sharing it.
You are welcome, Sarah.
Wow – this is beautiful! I started a blog just yesterday and linked to this. I’ve had chronic depression, much worse in the winter and felt particularly weighed down this year. Really beautiful words of hope. Thank you!
Blessed morning to you, Therese. We are on the same boat and that is okay as long as we maintain a dose of prayer and medicine. Check on the links provided that help me continue a prayerful life, positivity and progress along the way. Perpetua
A well-thought out prayer of gratitude, Thank you for sharing.
Blessings.
Amen.
This is wonderfully done, thank you!
Thank you, Ute.
Granny needed this right now, Seeker. Thank you 🙂 Pawkisses 🙂
Give Granny a hug for me, Binky. 🐱
Amen! Indeed, it seems a monumental task to be in a state of gratitude when you are down in the dumps. We can all promise to keep trying.
I’t start with you. Thank you for being there.
😀
Reblogged this on JIM'S THAILAND ADVENTURE ! and commented:
Answers….. when you don’t expect them….everything happens for a reason! ….sometimes it’s hard to find it!
Thank you for the reblog, Jim. Ins’t that a great thing when it happens!
I don’t know how you do this at the exact right time?….I have limited net access, and am on my 11th day in the hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand with a crushed spine and unable to walk, the MRI shows many problems! Your message shows many solution’s! Of course whats amazing I just finished my 500 mile Camino 56 day walk. As I type this I am surrounded by 9 other people of which one died yesterday. They are all in worse shape then me! I am GRATEFUL! By the way I did make the man in bed 3 smile….before he left us, this beautiful Buddhist culture …. only aloud tears of joy, as he moved on. Thanks for your “make me feel good message,” today!…”IT WORKED!” Jim
Oh Jim, I’m so sorry about your accident. I know you mentioned you had motor vehicle accident. I didn’t do anything except following the guidance of the Great Spirits. To hear that you made a man smile just before dying is wonderful. I suppose that is your purpose for being there with him. I’ll keep you in my prayers and please do not hesitate to e-mail me should you need to just reach out. Ok! Take care. Perpetua.
Thank you Seeker for this comforting Prayer, and for the link to the FriarsMusings…I have another blog to follow along, to learn from. A reading from the book of Hebrews this morning seems perfectly in keeping…”Because he himself was tested through what he suffered,
he is able to help those who are being tested.” Heb 2:14-18
We are always being put to the test and when it does, all we need to do is reach out to Him. Blessings.
Amen Seeker. I really didn’t even want to get out of bed this morning – and it’s Sunday. What’s up with that?
Know what you mean, Ms. D. Stayed home all weekend. Sometimes, we need to allow it and go with the flow. Hope you are better now. I am since I have to. Back to work.
Beautiful! I’m sitting with a post on exactly this topic, it hasn’t found the words yet, only when I speak with people but it’s on its way…
I hope you have found the words. Thank you.
Thank you. I have, only in emails so far, they’ll find their way to the blog soon… 🙂