Prayers for the Church and World
If you are looking for a prayer to pray this week, pray with us:
Holy and eternal God,
turn our faces to you…
Give us space to come into your presence,
Life beyond life… Wellspring of being…
Draw near to us, just as we are,
with comfort,
with strength,
with healing,
with reassurance,
with forgiveness,
with infinite hope…
Speak peace to our hearts, O God,
in these days of anxiety and upheaval…
Bring us into the stillness of your eternal now.
Let us know that you are with us…
forever here, forever coming toward us,
drawing us out of our fears,
calling us to break free and follow you
into the new life you have been preparing for us.
God, we praise you and we bless you!
We give you thanks today for the truth that sets us free.
You know how easily we fall into illusion and pretending—
the stories we tell ourselves to shore ourselves up, the narratives we cling to. Help us let go, and turn, and surrender to the infinite depths of your love and acceptance, which wait to receive us.
Holy One, we pray especially today for all your beloved children who are caught up in webs of deception and conspiracy, all who have found refuge and community in mazes of falsehood. We pray your mercy and help to all who have fallen under the power of collective delusions. When we lose ourselves, O God, like lambs astray in the wilderness, come after us, and bring us home. In silence we pray for those who have lost their way today…
God, as the pandemic continues to rage around the world, we pray for the sick… struggling at home, in hospitals, in ICUs… we pray for the dying, and for their families… We pray for health care workers, in all that they are going through… We ask your blessing and help for vaccine producers and distributors, public health workers, and all who are working night and day to protect their communities and bring the pandemic under control. In silence we pray for our world…
Amid all of these things, and all the challenges of our times, we lift up thanks and praise for this community, and for the church alive in your Spirit. We praise you that you have added new members to our fellowship today, with the varied gifts and experiences they bring with them, and we thank you that we continue to grow and change as a church, letting go of what we need to let go of, learning to open to new ways of being, following you out of our comfortable patterns into new paths of justice and love. Where you are present, God, hope burns with an eternal brightness. Help us to be a community of the burning presence of the Holy One.
All these prayers, and those still unspoken in our hearts, we lift to you in the name of Jesus the Beloved, who comes to us even now, praying with us in the words he taught us….Our Creator 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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 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.
This prayer was written by Rev. Kate Layzer, Minister of Street Outreach.