We invite you to join us in prayer this week, with the community prayers lifted up in worship on Sunday, March 8. Our prayers this week tend particularly to local, national, and global concern about the COVID-19 epidemic. Please join us in prayer:
Holy God, who loves the whole world,
Holy Christ, who comes to us with God’s healing love,
Holy Spirit, who empowers us to live eternal life, right here, right now,
we give you praise.
We give you thanks for the blessings of this day,
for the gift of another day to live for you,
for the extra sunlight we’ll have at day’s end,
for the promise of springtime, just around the corner.
We thank you for family and friends,
for this church family, for all the ways that we love and serve together.
We come to you in apprehensive times,
each of us bringing our own worry,
as local communities and the global community,
work together to find healing in the presence of the corona virus.
We pray for those who are hunkering down.
In these days of “social distance,”
give us new ways of staying in touch,
new ways of caring for each other,
and for the world you love.
We pray for those around the world who have already experienced the virus,
we pray healing for those who are sick,
we pray comfort for those who grieve.
We give you thanks for all those who are a healing presence in our lives,
for nurses and doctors, and all who work to bring medical care;
keep them safe, give them strength.
We pray for calm and steady spirits
that we may embody your healing presence
in the midst of a hurting world.
And we thank you that life is so much more than this virus.
Thank you for love and laughter and friends and family,
for lives to live with meaning,
for work to do in the world.
Strengthen us to continue in service,
feeding the hungry,
sheltering those living outside,
working for the freedom of all who are oppressed,
loving the world, with your abounding love and grace.
Grateful for, and trusting in your love for the world,
we join our voices with everyone, everywhere,
who has ever called on your name,
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.
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