Prayers for the Week of July 30, 2023
Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, July 30, 2023:
Loving, Holy God,
the world is yours and everything in it!
You have created all that is
and you sustain every living thing.
Praise God, O my soul, and help us forget not all God’s loving works,
who forgives our sin,
who heals our broken places,
who pulls us up out of the pit,
who crowns us with love and compassion,
who nourishes and sustains us,
who works justice for the oppressed,
whose love for us is as great as the heavens are high above the earth
who remembers we are dust,
who lets us lament ,
who listens,
who loves,
who breathes life into us, in this breath, and the next.
Loving, Holy God,
your steadfast love endures forever,
We give you thanks and praise!
And, leaning into your steady love,
we ask for help.
Help us heal this earth we have so badly damaged.
In every way, big and small,
redirect our ways of living
that have put us on this course toward climate collapse.
Teach us healing, sustaining ways of living
in healthy relationship with all creation.
Help us dismantle the systems of injustice we have built and that we inhabit,
particularly systemic American racism.
Open our hearts to see how we are complicit,
and help us stop.
Help us listen to those who have been harmed the most,
and follow their wisdom,
as we do the work of dismantling and rebuilding
a world where everyone can thrive.
Help us help each other in the particular struggles of everyday life.
For those who are unhoused, we pray for shelter,
for those who are hungry, food enough and more,
for those who are lonely, companionship,
for those who grieve, comfort,
for those who are ailing in body or spirit, healing.
Loving God, we pray especially today for those who lament,
for those who suffer.
You know their particular pain,
and ours.
Knit us together in your tender mercy,
and your healing love.
In this quiet moment,
we join our voices, with the voices of all who have called out to you,
in lament or thanksgiving or praise,
in every time, and every place,
we join our voices with theirs, 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: Mikita Yo, used with permission via Unsplash