Prayers for the Week of October 9, 2022

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship, Sunday, October 9, 2022:

God of loving care and tender mercy,

you have created all that is in love;

you knit us together, each and all;

you accompany us in our going out,

and in our coming home.

You’ve created us for life

lived in community with each other

and all creation.

We see and feel and hear and sense your glory,

in the fullness of your creation,

and in the tender companionship

of kindred spirits.

We give you thanks and praise.

You are present in and with the ache of the world,

and so we bring the concerns you’ve laid on our hearts.

We pray for a world filled with war and violence,

particularly for the people of Ukraine,

for your peace and your justice.

We pray for your good creation

that we have damaged to the verge of collapse.

Transform our hurting ways to healing ways.

Teach us to live lives that restore, repair, and nurture

all you have created.

We pray for those living in the wake of hurricanes,

help them, help us help them,

as they rebuild homes and communities and life.

We pray for an end to oppressive systems,

particularly American racism.

Help us to see the ways we participate in those systems,

give us the courage to stop, to dismantle, and to repair,

listening to and following those who have been harmed the most.

We pray for the healing of the hurt of your people everywhere.

For those who are unhoused, shelter.

For those who are hungry, food enough and more.

For those who are ailing in body or spirit, healing.

For those who are lonely, companionship.

For those who grieve, comfort.

Help us to embody your loving care and tender mercy,

amid and among the world as ones who serve.

Drawn together in you, with all who have called your name,

in every place and across the span of time,

we join our voices with their voice,

praying 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: Hermes Rivera, used with permission via Unsplash