Prayers for the Week of August 23

Please feel free to join us in prayer this week with the prayers we prayed in worship Sunday, August 23, 2020:

Mothering God,

you birthed and breathed life into all creation,

you’ve come to us in Jesus Christ,

your Word in our flesh,

and your Spirit empowers us to breathe together

to live life together

to serve together.

We give you thanks and praise.

We come to you in a world that is hurting beyond imagining,

with storms, it seems, on every front,

and we are weary.

We cry out with the Psalmists and seek your help.

We come to you in the midst of wildfires

all over the state of California and across the West.

We pray – with deep gratitude – for firefighters

who are risking their lives to contain these fires.

Give them strength, and endurance, and success.

We pray for those displaced and

for those whose homes have been destroyed,

we pray for shelter and comfort.

Help us help them to recover and rebuild.

We pray for all your creatures breathing toxic smoke,

help our lungs find fresh air to breath.

We pray for a quenching of these fires,

for the clearing of the air,

for the dawn of better days.

We pray for those in the paths of hurricanes.

and for their safety too.

We pray for an end of pandemic.

We pray for nurses and doctors and medical professionals,

thank you for their skill and compassion

gird them with strength,

continue to place your healing touch in their hands.

Help us to find ways of living together, with self-discipline,

that help stop the spread of disease,

even as we pray for a vaccine.

We pray for leaders who can lead

with wisdom, compassion, a sense of right and wrong,

and concern for the most vulnerable among us.

In the midst of all this, we bring the concerns of our hearts,

we pray for the family of Jim Bell,

and give thanks for his life,

for his tender spirit and gentle way,

for his voice and his song,

as we grieve, we lean into your sure promise of Resurrection.

We pray for all those who are sick and ailing,

we pray for their healing and their strength,

help us support them with loving, tender care.

We pray for all the ways we are lonely,

help us to companion each other.

God, we pray that you might be our refuge and our strength,

our ever-present help in times of trouble.

Breathing these prayers with all who have ever called on your name,

we pray the prayer that Jesus taught, saying:

Our Father/Mother, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.