Prayers for the Week of March 19, 2023

Artwork: “Son, Rise" by Rev. Denise Anderson|

A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org|

used with copyright permission

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, March 19, 2023:

Creating God,

you refresh your world

with rain, and sunshine, and springtime,

all that we need, each in its season.

You have created all that is and called it good –

even us.

And then, even in our wandering and our stumbling,

you seek us out and find us,

and bring us home.

You extend your healing touch

to all our broken places.

You surround us and fill us

with love and all we need

for the living of this day

and the next.

We give you thanks and praise.

And yet knowing this, we also know that life is hard.

We move through this bewildering world,

and trust that we can bring our questions to you:[1]

· How do we break free from feelings of unworthiness or guilt?

· How do we break cycles of judgment that separate us from each other,

ourselves, and you?

· Where are you in the emptiness we sometimes feel?

· How do we find meaning?

· What is our path forward?

· How do we heal? How do we help?

We trust that we can bring our cares and concerns to you.

For a world in climate crisis,

we pray for healing beyond what we can imagine.

Help us end our own wasting ways – individually and collectively –

teach us ways that repair and sustain,

that we might live healing mending lives, in this world we have wrecked.

In a world of war, we pray for peace –

for an end to every kind of violence –

for an end to every kind of oppression –

for a dismantling of systems that hold people down,

particularly systems of American racism.

We pray for the well-being of children,

for shelter for all who are unhoused or seeking refuge and safe harbor,

food enough and more for all who hunger,

healing for all who are ailing in body or in spirit,

companionship for those who are lonely,

compassion and tender mercy for those who hurt,

for all our aching places.

Knowing that you are with us always, in every moment of life,

and giving thanks for the companions along the way,

we join our voices with the voices of everyone who has ever called your nam,

praying the prayer that Jesus taught:

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.