Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, February 20, 2022:
God of love, and forgiveness,
and healing, and belonging, and life,
we give you praise,
and we thank you for the gift of this new day.
We gather aware of the trouble of this world,
and pray for you healing, saving grace.
As nations rattle sabers,
and launch missiles,
and mobilize troops,
we pray for peace.
We pray for peace in The Ukraine,
and in every corner of this planet,
for every nation and every people.
Cure our warring madness,
that we might study war no more.
We pray for an end of every other kind of violence –
for an end to the violence of racism –
for the dismantling of American systemic racism –
for clear eyes and honest hearts
to acknowledge how we are complicit in those systems
and to stop, and to repair, and rebuild
a better world with you.
We pray for an end to the violence we do to this planet
in our consumption, and neglect, and abuse,
lead us to disciplined ways of sustainable living
that heal your good creation.
We thank you for your presence in every bit of life –
your healing for every trouble,
and we pray for all the ways the world hurts –
we pray healing for those who are ailing in body or in spirit,
shelter for those who are unhoused,
food for those who hunger,
companionship for those who are lonely,
comfort for those who mourn,
strength and support for all families.
We thank you for your abounding grace and love –
and especially for the opportunity yesterday
to celebrate the life of Asma Eschen
gathered with communities around the world
that she wove together in love and service,
planting trees as an embodied sign and promise of peace.
In our life,
may we be like those trees,
planted by streams of water,
sending our roots deep,
that we might give shade and shelter,
and good fruit in season,
to all who hunger and thirst for life.
Together, with all the saints who have gone before us,
and all who have every called on your name,
we join our voices with their voices
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.
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