When you need the Holy Spirit to soften what has gone hard in you, St. Augustine of Hippo offers this 5th-century prayer. It asks God to take away sin, kindle the Spirit’s fire, and replace a heart of stone with a heart that loves.
O Lord, who hast mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of thy Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore thee, a heart to delight in thee, to follow and to enjoy thee, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
St. Augustine of Hippo, c. 400 AD
How this prayer works
Augustine’s prayer echoes the prophet Ezekiel’s promise that God will remove the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). The “heart of stone” is the part of us that resists grace, that calcifies in habitual sin or indifference. The “heart of flesh” is alive, responsive, capable of love.
Augustine wrote this during his years as Bishop of Hippo, after his own dramatic conversion from a life of sin. He knew what it meant to feel distant from God, and he knew what it meant to be set on fire by the Spirit. The prayer doesn’t ask for feelings or consolations. It asks for transformation at the root: a new heart.
Pray it slowly at the start of your day, before you open your laptop or check your phone. Name the specific sins you want taken away. Ask for the fire that burns clean. Carry Augustine’s final phrase through the morning: a heart to love, adore, delight in, follow, and enjoy God.
Return to this prayer of the day whenever you feel yourself growing cold.
