Prayers for the Week of July 21, 2024

Photo credit: Jeremy Bishop, used with permission via Unsplash

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, July 21, 2024:

Loving God, giver of wisdom and life,

you created us, and all that is in love.

You have created us to love and to live life

in families and communities,

in relationships of justice, healing, and peace,

so that all your children

might have enough, and survive, and thrive.

In wisdom, you empower us to find ways of living

that lead to more life.

We give you thanks and praise.

We pray this morning for wisdom that helps us find our way to peace.

We pray for peace wherever there is war,

in Israel/Palestine, in Ukraine, in Sudan.

We pray for the people of Gaza,

and for an end to the indiscriminate violence against them,

for an end to the bombing of hospitals,

an end to collective punishment of a people.

We pray for a permanent cease fire and a return of hostages,

for the restoration of all the things needed for life:

water, food, medical care, peace with justice.

We pray for an end to all systems that oppress and push people to the margins.

We pray particularly for an end to our own oppressive systems,

including systemic American racism.

Help us see broadly and listen deeply,

help us listen to those who have been harmed the most, and learn,

to see with them what must come to an end,

and to listen for their leadership in re-building a world where all can thrive.

We pray healing for the damage we have done to the earth.

Help us understand clearly what we have done,

including the things that cannot now be changed,

so that we can focus on those ways of living that can and must be changed,

so that we can live with wisdom and compassion in this age of climate unravelling.

We pray for all those who suffer.

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

for those who carry trauma.

We pray shelter for those who are unhoused.

For those who are hungry, food enough and more.

For those who are lonely or unseen, companionship.

For those who grieve, comfort.

Loving God, give us your wisdom and tender mercy,

so that we might have deep compassion for each other and the world.

Teach us the skills of deep listening, so that we might see each other whole,

and together find those ways of living that lead to life.

Together, with all those who have ever called on you,

we 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.