Prayers for the Week of July 19, 2020

Please feel free to join us in the prayers we prayed in worship, Sunday, July 19, 2020:

Creator of all creation,

Christ who loves the world without exception,

Empowering Spirit,

for the whole of life,

and your presence in all of it,

we give you thanks and praise.

Bless this day, O God,

our lives

that we might live each day for you.

Bless our eyes

that we might see with you the beauty of this Earth,

along with the harm we continue to inflict on it,

that we might find better, sustainable, healing ways of living.

Bless our ears

that we might listen to each other,

that we might hear the deep need of the world,

and respond with shelter for those who need a home,

with food for the hungry,

with comfort for those who mourn,

with companionship for those who are lonely.

Bless our hands

that we might extend your loving, healing touch.

In a world wrapped in pandemic,

help us to persevere in ways of disciplined living

that protect and honor the health and well-being of others.

Bless the work of nurses, and doctors, and all in the healing professions,

give them strength, gird them up,

bring tender healing to the trauma they see every day.

We pray for an end to pandemic.

Bless our shoulders

that they might be strong in the work of justice.

Give us steady, unfailing commitment

to join the work of dismantling systemic racism,

to do the work that is ours to do,

to unlearn what we need to unlearn,

that we might see the world as it is,

our part in it,

and then create with you the world as it should be.

In the words of Congressman Lewis,

let us live “as if” the world you are calling into being

is already here.

Bless our arms

that we might stretch them out

in the full and inclusive embrace of community.

Gathered here, in the body of Christ,

present with you and connected with all creation,

we join our voices, with the voices of all

who have every prayed the prayer that Jesus taught, praying:

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.