Prayers for the Week of May 24

We invite you to join us this week in the prayers that we prayed in worship this Sunday, May 24:

Loving God,

Maker of the world,

Giver of life,

you have given us

another day of life to live for you,

and we give you thanks and praise.

You have given us life to live

in a world of complexity,

where so much feels uncertain and new,

and you have equipped us

with the power of love and imagination

and the abiding presence of your Spirit,

that frees us to live life together

beyond and through and round everything that separates us.

We come to you with the deep prayers of our heart.

We pray for an end to pandemic,

for healing, helping ways to make our way

through this season together,

mindful not only of our own pain and isolation,

but also of every person, in every circumstance,

living life behind every kind of door.

On this Memorial Day, we join our nation

in remembering and giving thanks

for all who have lost their life

in military service.

We pray for families and friends

who grieve today,

without access to the in-person rituals

that we use to hold our grieving and remembrance.

We give thanks for all who are called to public service,

and for all who work for the common good,

for those who work for justice and peace,

for those in the medical professions who work for healing,

for those who teach,

for those who feed the hungry,

for all of us in this season where we are re-learning

the power and necessity of collective action,

the life-giving experience of sacrificial living.

We pray for those who are incarcerated

behind the locked doors of prisons and jails.

Help us to remember them,

though they are hidden from sight.

Empower us to act for their health and safety and humanity.

Remind us daily to do the work

of dismantling the racism

that has plagued our nation from its inception.

Help us to know better

and to do better.

We pray for those who are living outside,

for shelter and enough to eat.

We pray for the Earth straining in climate emergency,

may we bring new learnings to the work of mending the world,

so that we might have the will

to flatten the curve of climate change.

We pray for those who mourn and grieve,

for those who are lonely,

may we be a comfort to each other.

Loved by you, and drawn together

with you and with all people

in every time and place,

we join together saying 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.