Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, March 17, 2024:
Loving God,
you created all that is
and then gazed on what you had made
and called it good.
You created each of us –
wove us together from the depths of the earth,
in a dazzling array of beauty and particularity.
You created us for love,
and you invite us to love as you love –
to love ourselves, and each other, and all creation –
all in relationships that reflect the dignity and worth of every bit of creation.
Each new day, you give us new breath
to live lives of justice, healing, and peace,
and we give you thanks.
Moving towards your inviting love,
we bring to you the concerns of a hurting world.
We pray for an end to every system that harms and hurts.
To the extent that we or anyone experience that harm,
we pray for your healing, comfort, protection, and strength.
To the extent that we are complicit in those systems of harm,
help us to stop.
Help us to see clearly the ways we are complicit,
and to not only stop, but to join your work of dismantling and rebuilding.
We pray especially for an end to systems that harm on the basis of race and gender.
We pray for peace, and particularly for the people of Gaza.
We pray for an end to the indiscriminate killing of Gazans,
and end to the killing of noncombatants and of thousands of children –
an end to efforts to remove Gazans from the land,
for an end to the genocide unfolding there.
We pray for an immediate and permanent cease-fire,
and for the restoration of systems and structures that provide the necessities of life,
water, food, health care.
We pray for peace – for peace with justice –
for a world where everyone can thrive.
In these days of climate unraveling, we pray for the well-being of the earth.
Lead us into ways that no longer waste and destroy,
but that sustain and mend and renew life.
We pray for those who are ailing or hurting, for healing;
for those who mourn, comfort;
for those who hunger, food enough and more;
for those who are unhoused, shelter;
for those who are lonely, companionship.
You have created us for life lived in Beloved Community, and so,
together, with everyone who has ever called on your name,
we join our voices with theirs, and in one voice,
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: Leonard Cotte, used with permission via Unsplash