Prayer Before Study

As many of us students now struggle with the final throes of the first semester, hurdling our requirements and wrestling with the tests, may we nevertheless remember to remain with God in prayer and draw from him who is the Source of all Wisdom and Knowledge.

Ineffable Creator,
You are proclaimed
the true font of light and wisdom,
and the primal origin
raised high beyond all things.

Pour forth a ray of Your brightness
into the darkened places of my mind;
disperse from my soul
the twofold darkness
into which I was born:
sin and ignorance.

You make eloquent the tongues of infants.
Refine my speech
and pour forth upon my lips
the goodness of Your blessing.

Grant to me
keenness of mind,
capacity to remember,
skill in learning,
subtlety to interpret,
and eloquence in speech.

May You guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to completion.

You Who are true God and true Man,
Who live and reign, world without end.

Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas