Please feel free to join us in prayer this week with the prayers we prayed in worship, Sunday, November 22, 2020:
Holy Christ,
in love, you were in the beginning,
creating all that is.
In love, you’ve accompanied your creation,
saving us from everything that does us harm.
In love, your Spirit invites and empowers us
to create with you
a world better than the world we see –
your reign in the midst of us now,
dismantling every power that oppresses,
building a world
that is loving, just, and true.
Loving Christ,
we praise you and give you thanks.
In a hard and challenging time,
we give you thanks for the kindness
we find in these days.
We thank you for healthcare professionals,
fierce, tenacious, and full of tender care.
We thank you for those who accompany
the sick and the dying, and families in distress.
Renew their strength,
and give us ears to heed their wisdom.
We thank you for your tender mercy,
embodied in the touch of their hands.
We thank you for the kindness of these days,
for the masks that others wear to keep us safe,
for the phone call that reminds us we are not alone,
for the blessing of making a meal for someone in need,
for food banks,
for family,
for friends,
for love that transcends the years
and bridges every separation,
for the courage of those who work for justice,
for this Earth,
and the song of birds,
and the dawn that greets each day.
For life to live,
and love to share,
and work to do.
We pray that the kindness
we find in these days
will make us
more loving and more brave.
Give us the humility
to see and name our part
in the world’s suffering,
our complicity in systems that oppress,
particularly systems of racism,
and give us the wherewithal
to tear down that which needs to go,
and work with you to build for a world
where all live free.
Give us resolve and discipline,
to face the realities of climate emergency,
to change our ways of living
to repair the world we have damaged,
to find ways of living sustainably
in this Earth.
And most of all, give us the love and courage
to stand where you stand,
with and on behalf of everyone
whose back is up against a wall;
to stand in solidarity with each and all,
in our shared humanity,
loved by you,
beyond every separation,
and every power.
And so with one voice, we join our voices
with all who have ever called on you,
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.