Prayers for the Week of August 28, 2022

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, August 28, 2022:

Holy God,

you have created all that is –

created us to live in community

with all creation,

created us to live with each other

in relationships of mutuality and dignity.

You invite all creation

to your table,

and by your hand,

we live and thrive.

Joining our voices in the grateful chorus

that the morning stars began,

we give you thanks and praise.

We pray this morning,

particularly for those who have been marginalized and harmed

by unjust systems –

for their full seat at the table –

for everything needed to live and thrive.

We pray for those impoverished by unjust economic systems.

For those who are hungry,

we pray for food enough and more.

For those who are unhoused,

we pray for shelter.

For those displaced,

a home.

We pray that you will loosen the tight grasp of privilege,

so that the good gifts you have set in this world

will be shared by all,

so that all creation may live and thrive.

We pray for an end to oppressive systems,

particularly for an end to long-persistent American systemic racism.

Help us to see the ways we participate

in those systems and in the harm of others,

and to stop.

Give us the humility to take the lead from those harmed the most,

and to rebuild together, with you,

a world where all can thrive.

We pray healing for a planet we have damaged to the point of collapse.

Help us give thanks for the beauty and goodness of your creation,

even as we grieve and repent the damage we have done.

Open us to new ways of connection,

new ways of imagining the work that is still ours to do

in caring for your world.

We bring to you the cares and concerns of our heart.

For those who are ailing in body or spirit,

we pray for healing.

For those who are lonely,

companionship and connection.

For those who are grieving,

comfort and peace.

Thank you for the good gift of life,

for the gift of this day,

for the grace you give us

to stumble through,

to try together,

in your love and presence,

to live our imperfect lives well,

to live our lives for the well-being of the whole world.

With all you have created, with all who have ever called on you,

we join our voices with theirs,

praying together 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.

Photo credit: Brooke Lark, used with permission via Unsplash