Prayers for the Week of July 17, 2022

Please feel free to join in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, July 17, 2022:

Loving, healing God,

Creator of the universe, and galaxies,

all the stars, the sun and moon,

and the lily, and the daisy, and the rose.

We praise you for your mighty works,

and for your tender mercy,

for all the ways you wrap

all you have made

in your abiding love.

We give you thanks and praise.

We pray for the needs of all who inhabit this world,

we pray healing for every hurt.

For those who are hungry,

we pray for sustaining meals, nutrition,

food enough and more,

all they need to survive and thrive in this world.

For those who mourn,

a hand to hold.

For those who are unhoused,

safe shelter, not just for tonight,

but for life.

For those who are lonely,

the listening, companioning presence of a friend.

For those who are ailing --

broken in body, wounded in spirit,

those who are aching or weary,

we pray healing for every hurt.

We pray your healing power

and your promise of Resurrection

for those hurts that are global in scale –

healing for a planet we have brought to the verge of climate collapse,

healing from systems of oppression,

particularly systems of American racism,

healing for all who have been harmed.

And for everywhere there is war and violence,

particularly the Ukraine,

and this country and our violent culture,

we pray for peace,

cure our warring madness.

We pray for the courage to do the work that is ours to do,

the big things,

and also the small,

fill our lives with possibility

every moment of every day

to do “small things with great love.”

Wrapped and embraced in your love and tender mercy,

woven together forever with all you have created,

we join our voices with the voices of all those who have ever called your name,

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.

Photo credit: NASA, used with permission