Prayers for Patience
The Douay-Rheims renders waiting on God as 'expect the Lord' — patience as active expectation rather than gritted teeth. James insists patience is built by the very delays that test it, which is either infuriating or consoling depending on the day.
Traditional prayers
Peace Prayer of St. Francis
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
From Scripture
7Be subject to the Lord and pray to him. Envy not the man who prospereth in his way; the man who doth unjust things.
34Expect the Lord and keep his way: and he will exalt thee to inherit the land: when the sinners shall perish thou shalt see.
— Psalm 36 (37), vv. 7, 34, Douay-Rheims · read the full chapter
12Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Instant in prayer.
— Romans 12, vv. 12, Douay-Rheims · read the full chapter
2My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations:
3Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience
4And patience hath a perfect work: that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.
— James 1, vv. 2-4, Douay-Rheims · read the full chapter
Psalm numbers follow the Douay-Rheims (Vulgate) numbering; the common Hebrew numbering appears in parentheses.
How to use these prayers
Pick the one person or situation that most tries your patience and pray for them daily for a week. The prayer changes you first — that's by design.