The Prayers of Rava and R. Sheshet

After his prayer, Rava said the following: My God, before I was created I was worthless, and now that I have been created it is as if I had not been created, [I am no more significant]. I am dust in life, all the more so in my death. I am before You as a vessel filled with shame and humiliation. [Therefore,] may it be Your will, Lord my God, that I will sin no more, and that those [transgressions] that I have committed, cleanse in Your abundant mercy; but [may this cleansing] not [be] by means of suffering and serious illness, [but rather in a manner I will be able to easily endure.] And this is the confession of R. Hamnuna Zuti on Yom Kippur. [ . . . ]

When R. Sheshet would sit in [observance of] a fast, after he prayed he said as follows: Master of the universe, it is revealed before You that when the Temple is standing, one sins and offers a sacrifice. And [although] only its fat and blood were offered from [that sacrifice on the altar, his transgression] is atoned for him. And now, I sat in [observance of] a fast and my fat and blood diminished. May it be Your will that my fat and blood that diminished be [considered as if] I offered [a sacrifice] before You on the altar, and may I find favor in Your eyes.