National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding

In 1990, the U.S. Congress established the first week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW). This is a wonderful opportunity to partner with community groups in your area to raise awareness about mental illness. Tuesday of Mental Illness Awareness Week is designated as The National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding. It has had widespread support by individual congregations and National Faith Community Mental Illness Networks.  The following is a prayer to be used on October 4th or any time for that matter:
   Loving Creator, we come to you on this National Day of Prayer for Mental Illness Recovery and Understanding because we know that you are a God of love and compassion. We come as people of all creeds and all nations seeking your presence, comfort and guidance. We come as individuals living with mental illness, family
members, friends, co-workers and mental health professionals. We come this day because we believe that you, Divine One, love each one of us just as we are. You walk with us onour individual journeys through life. You see the ignorance and injustice that divide and separate persons living with mental illness and you weep with us.
   Give us courage to face our challenges and open us today to the many ways you are already working in our midst. Help us to identify mental illness as the disease it is, that we might have courage and wisdom in the face of ignorance and stigma. Inspire us as we seek to overcome fear, acquire knowledge and advocate for compassionate and enlightened treatment and services.
   Lead us as we open our hearts and homes, our communities and job opportunities, our houses of worship and communities of faith. Enable us to find ways to include persons living with mental illness in our everyday lives. Be with doctors, therapists, researchers, social workers and all those in the helping professions as they seek to overcome ignorance and injustice with care and compassion. 
   Sometimes, Divine Spirit, we feel discouraged and hopeless in the face of so many challenges. Help us to see ourselves as you see us—persons of value and worth, persons of creativity and potential. May we come to understand the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit in bringing about health and wholeness. And may we go forward into our communities with a renewed sense of vision, hope and possibility for the future.  Amen.

Reverend Susan Gregg-Schroeder