Prayers for the Week of January 16, 2022

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, January 16, 2022:

Loving, Liberating, Healing God,

we come to you in the deep trouble of this world,

grateful for your abiding presence,

grateful that you have made us for life together.

We come to you, reminded of

our connectedness to each other

as tsunami waves hit our shores

from a volcanic eruption an ocean away.

We pray for the people of Tonga,

as they dig out and recover from yesterday’s eruption –

help for all who have been harmed.

We pray for your beautiful earth –

created by you in love –

damaged by us in our neglect and abuse.

Fill us with awe at your creative work,

that we might repent,

and learn ways of living on this earth

that repair and heal.

We pray for all those caught and hurt

in systems that perpetuate oppression

across the centuries,

particularly American systemic racism.

Help us to face honestly

the realities of those systems,

our own participation;

drive us to join the work

of dismantling, abolition, rebuilding, and reparation –

so that all children might live free and thrive.

We pray this day for Jewish communities everywhere

as they reel from yesterday’s hostage taking in Texas.

We pray for an end to anti-Semitism

and every kind of violence and hate.

We give thanks for the safety of those taken hostage,

and pray for the family of the man who threatened their lives,

and for the community he terrorized.

We pray for the hurt in this world,

for those who are ailing in body or spirit, healing,

for those who are lonely, companionship,

for those who are hungry, food enough to thrive,

for those who are unhoused, shelter.

In the midst of all the hurt in this world,

give us the heart and courage

to walk toward the trouble,

to listen and to let our hearts break,

that we might be moved

to join your healing, liberating, saving work in the world.

Together, with everyone who has ever called on your name,

we join our voices with theirs, and in one voice,

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.