Artwork: “Wet Stones” by Carmelle Beaugelin |
A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
used with permission
Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship this Sunday, March 12, 2023:
Holy, loving God,
you have created us and all that is
for life lived in love and community.
From the beginning,
you have invited us to walk in the garden with you;
you have met us in our dreams and in our waking moments;
you have accompanied us in our wilderness wanderings;
you have brought us up and out into freedom;
you have sought us out and brought us home;
you have healed our broken places;
you meet us at the well
on dry dusty days,
and offer living water
for all our parched places.
For all the ways you invite us into life with you,
we give you thanks and praise.
Responding to your invitation, we come with our honest questions:
· In a broken world, what do peace and justice look like, and how do we get there?
· How can we build deeper and more-trusting relationships?
· How do we live out our longing for you – in times of laughter, confusion,
anger, awe, joy – in the whole of life?
· What are you longing for in us?[1]
We come with the concerns of our hearts.
For a world in climate crisis, we pray for the healing of the earth.
For a world at war, we pray for peace.
For a world full of oppressive power,
we pray for the dismantling of every system
that holds people down, that harms, that hurts,
we pray for particularly for an end to American systemic racism
We pray for the needs of the world.
For those who are refugees, we pray for safe journey,
for shelter, for home, for community in which they can live and thrive.
For those who are hungry,
we pray for food enough and more.
For those who are unhoused, shelter.
For those who are sick, healing.
For those who mourn, comfort.
For those who are lonely, companionship.
For all the ways we thirst,
we pray for your living water.
May we drink deeply
and live lives that bring life to others,
to your whole world.
In community with each other, and with everyone who has 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.
[1] These honest questions are drawn from the questions shared in our Ash Wednesday worship.