A Prayer for the Lonely

During this break between semesters, I've been spending some time with the prayers of the revised St. Augustine Prayer Book, a lot of which are really great. This one (For the Lonely) beautifully considers friendship and its opposites from a variety of perspectives and as an offering to God:

Lord Jesus, in Gethsemane, your friends were not able to stay awake and watch with you, and, when you were taken, they all fled leaving you alone; remember with compassion and for good those who are alone; those who have lost friends or family to death; those whose lives have been solitary because of work or particular burdens. We pray also for those who in selfishness or other faults have broken every tie, those whose guilt or sin leaves them alone or despised. We pray for those who have been falsely accused and shunned for no reasons, those embittered through what they have endured, and for all caught in the isolation of mental confusion. 

In all of these, O Lord, let your Spirit work forgiveness and reconciliation, renewal and hope; give to each of us such a sense of your abiding love, such a confidence in the communion of saints and such a heart that as we turn toward you, we turn also toward each other, in perfect charity and in the bonds of friendship; for you have called us friends and welcome us all into the one and eternal kingdom.

Amen.