Prayers for the Week of July 24, 2022

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, July 24, 2022:

Holy, loving God,

you are our refuge and our strength,

an ever-present help in times of trouble.

You love and care for all you have created.

You bring life to those who are weary;

you lift up those who have been held low;

you nourish and shelter those in need.

When we wander,

you bring us back home.

We praise you; we give you thanks;

we put our trust in you.

We pray for a hurting world.

In a world filled with violence and war,

we pray for peace.

We pray for the healing of the hurt and harm,

for shelter and home for all who have been displaced.

In days of record heat, and wildfires, and storms,

we pray for an aching world,

crying out in climate emergency,

hurtling toward climate collapse.

Help us to stop – help us to stop our Earth-damaging ways,

to find sustainable ways of living, healing ways,

to live in this changed and damaged world.

Help us to lean into your creative power and love.

In a world of injustice and oppression,

help us lean into your heart for freedom.

Help us see honestly, confront, and dismantle systems of oppression,

particularly systems of American racism.

In a week, where we see and re-live again,

images of a white-supremacist, insurrectionist mob,

attacking the Capitol and Constitution,

goaded on by a sitting president,

help us stand steadfastly for truth and freedom,

and work harder to embody

the promise of equal protection of our laws.

We pray for the needs of our daily lives.

For those who are hurting in body or in spirit,

we pray for healing.

We pray especially for Pat Perry,

may you surround her with healing, comfort, and peace.

We pray for those who are hungry,

for food enough and more.

For those who are unhoused,

shelter.

For those who are lonely,

the companionship of a friend.

In a world in which so many things

compete for our attention, our time, our commitment,

we trust in you.

We ground our lives

in your wisdom, your grace, your peace, your healing, your love.

On that sure foundation,

standing hand in hand with all those in every time and place,

who have ever called your name,

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.

Photo credit: Jonny Gios, used with permission via Unsplash