An old friend of mine, who spent her career in the FBI — but had absolutely nothing to do with James Comey, Donald Trump, or J. Edgar Hoover for that matter — once told me there was a prayer she said every day on her way to the office. A prayer that would change my life. A prayer I desperately needed. A prayer for the lonely, the anxious, the angry, the lost, the despairing, the suffering and the “unlovable.”

I was curious. What could it be? The rosary? The morning offering? The Jesus Prayer? The Act of Contrition? The Liturgy of the Hours?

No, Rena said, it was much simpler. It was one sentence: “Dear God, help me to recognize your love for me today in my life.”

I was underwhelmed. Was that all? I thought about it and wondered what could be so special about a one-sentence prayer when I had more important prayers to say, including devotions and novenas that came right out of the Raccolta and had indulgences attached to them because I needed a lot of heavenly extra credit.

But her prayer kept intruding on my reverie, so I figured Jesus wanted me to start saying it. “Dear God, help me to recognize your love for me today in my life.”

The effects were almost immediate. Things I would have normally overlooked as part of the daily routine — an act of kindness, an opportunity to show compassion, a compliment or a smile, the sight of a goldfinch singing at my bedroom window — suddenly became immensely meaningful, illuminated in the glow of Christ’s grace.

I suddenly realized they were gifts and blessings that I was being sent from the master giver because … he loved ME and wanted to be sure that I knew. At least a million times I’ve been told that God loves me, but it’s quite another thing to feel it, especially when you grew up in a home where you were usually told, “God’s gonna punish you!”

Throughout my life, I’ve tried to earn God’s approval, as if I were fearfully supplicating him like an Aztec deity. As an adult, I have a better understanding of God and can reject that notion, although it’s difficult to entirely escape the corrosive spiritual effects.

Plus, like many others I grew up in an alcoholic home, where there was criticism and emotional abuse, which means to say you didn’t feel particularly lovable at the end of the day. In fact, you felt absolutely unlovable. What was there to love?

Look around you. Countless people feel unlovable and unloved, so they resort to self-destructive behavior like substance abuse, gangs and bad relationships. They suffer from depression, poor self-esteem and loneliness. They don’t believe they deserve to be loved, even by a God whose love is infinite and unconditional.

Mother Teresa, who spent her life caring for the unloved and forgotten, once said, “There is much suffering in the world — physical, material, mental. The material and physical suffering is suffering from hunger, from homelessness, from all kinds of diseases. But the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, having no one. I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.”

While many of us can intellectually accept that God loves us in all our imperfections, we don’t feel it. Or we put conditions on his love: “If you loved me, I’d get that raise” or “If you loved me, you’d help me find the perfect partner” or “If you really loved me, I’d be healed.”

Very often, we’re too distracted by daily events to recognize expressions of God’s love. Then, when you least expect it, he’ll give you a sudden glimpse of divine love, which can overwhelm you with joy. His expressions of love may not include a BMW, the winning Powerball ticket or induction into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. They’ll be better.

I believe God answers that prayer on a daily basis because he wants to show us how much he loves us and he wants us to actually feel that love. Just hearing that God loves us isn’t enough. We need to RECOGNIZE it, and when we do, it will lead to unsurpassed joy. We need these daily reminders, especially when life gets hard.

“Dear God, help me to recognize your love for me today in my life.” Say it in the morning … and in the evening, examine your day and you’ll see the proof. (And don’t forget to say thank you.)

(Joe Pisani is a freelance writer from Orange. He can be reached at joefpisani@yahoo.com.)