Please feel free to join us this week in the prayers prayed in worship January 31, 2021:
Mothering God,
you created us in love,
knitting us together
with all creation
from the depths of the earth;
weaving us together
for life lived in community,
with each other
and with you.
You are present with us
in every moment of every day;
you know us;
you are familiar with all our ways.
We give you thanks and praise.
Before a prayer is on our tongue,
you know it completely,
and even so,
you invite us to name to you
the deepest concerns of our heart,
to sing our joys,
and to sit with you in holy silence.
We bring to you this morning
all those places where we feel
lonely and alone.
In days of necessary physical distancing,
we pray for all who are lonely,
the moments when we feel isolated and alone.
Help us to see and find connection;
help us to reach out to each other in love.
We pray for healing for those who are sick,
comfort for those who mourn,
shelter for those who are unhoused,
food for those who are hungry,
a fair and living wage for all who labor.
We pray for the aches and struggles of this world.
We pray for an earth in climate emergency,
a crisis of our making.
Help us to repent and find our way to disciplined,
sustainable ways of living,
that will lead to healing of the whole planet.
We pray for that same discipline
in our collective life in pandemic,
for steady perseverance in the practices
that help save each other’s lives:
physical distancing,hand-washing,
face-coverings, and double-masking.
We pray for public health officials,
and all who work in the healing professions,
gird them with your strength and wisdom.
We pray for vaccine distribution
that is steady and swift.
We pray for an end to pandemic.
We also pray for an end to the systems that oppress,
and particularly for an end to systemic racism.
Search us and know our hearts,
show us all the ways that we are complicit in those systems,
and open to us clear commitment
to the work that is ours to do
to dismantle those systems,
and build a new world with you and with each other,
following the lead of those
who have been harmed the most.
Help us find our way to you and to each other.
With one voice, we join our voices
with all who have ever called on you,
praying the prayer that Jesus taught:
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.