Prayers for the Week of August 8, 2021

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship, Sunday, August 8, 2021:

Gracious, loving God,

you have created all that is,

the earth, sea, sky, stars

trees, and stones, and birds,

every breathing living being,

and the world we inhabit,

and when you have beheld what you have made,

you affirm, “This is good” –

your goodness planted more deeply in this world

than all that is wrong.

With all your creation,

we give you thanks and praise,

our voices joining the mighty chorus

that the morning stars began.

You have created us to live in community,

with each other and all creation,

to live together lives of

justice, healing, and true peace.

By the power of the Spirit,

you build up the body of Christ.

As part of that body,

diversely gifted to bless the world,

we pray today for the freedom of all bodies.

We pray for bodies to be freed from illness.

We pray healing for all those who are ailing

in body or spirit.

We pray for an end to pandemic –

for encouragement for everyone to join

the collective effort to vaccinate

and wear face-coverings

and heal and protect the vulnerable.

We pray for those living with cancer,

for treatments that bring healing and comfort.

We pray strength for nurses and doctors,

and all those who labor in healing professions.

We pray for bodies to be freed

from systems that oppress.

We pray for an end to systemic racism,

for the clear vision to see the ways

that we participate in those systems,

for the courage to speak truth in love,

to dismantle those systems,

and to change.

We pray for the body of creation

that it might be freed

from the misuse and abuse

we have done to this world.

We pray for your help

in this climate emergency of our own making.

We pray for ways of living

that sustain, and repair, and heal.

We pray for all those

in the paths of wildfires and storms.

We pray for all bodies – for all people everywhere –

for those who hunger, food and sustenance,

for those who are unhoused, shelter,

for those who are lonely, companionship,

for every child of yours, we pray for enough –

enough that they may survive, and thrive,

for the fullness of every blessing you provide,

so that each child of yours has all that we need

to become everything that you have created us to be.

Gathered in the Body of Christ,

we join our voices,

with the voices of all who call on you,

in every place and time,

praying 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.