Tuesday Prayer

another treasure of a prayer song...

because I don't know about you, but I am needing help to hear what needs to be heard.
Amen.

Monday Prayer: Sufficient Grace

God of grace and mercy, your love has no boundaries. 

Your power does not discriminate. 

Your healing does not favor one race, ethnicity, or creed. 

In a world that teaches a false scarcity of resources and preaches the false gospel of blessedness through prosperity, help us to understand your grace is enough.

 It is enough to help us live in trust. 

It is enough to carry us into and through faithful action. 

It is enough to open our minds to new and imaginative ways to bring all people together for the sake of peace, for sake of community, for the sake of Jesus. 

Hear our prayer, O God. 

And, in your mercy, answer us. 

Easter 5C Sunday Prayer

Oh God who created all things including humans, we praise your name for you faithfulness.

We praise you just as all of the creatures of the earth sing your praise.

We look forward to that day when we live with you in our eternal home.

In the meantime come make your home in us.

Come into our neighborhoods, our work places, our schools.

Come live in us Lord.

We await the day when every tear will be wiped away and there will be no more grieving.

In the meantime Lord, wipe our tears when we do mourn our losses, like those in West Texas after the explosion.

We look for the day when there will be no more sickness, in the meantime when we are ailing bring your healing touch to our lives.

We look for the day when all things will be new,

 in the meantime renew our tired land, our old falling down housing, our broken systems, our empty spaces of worship and our aging bodies.

We await that day Lord, when your justice, your love, your mercy rules and thy kingdom has come.

Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Tuesday Prayer

...for those in terror and fear, grief, loss,
ongoing.
never fading.
not even thinking that hope is possible.
O God,
hear our heartbreaking prayers.

...for the bursts of golden forsythia,
the happy daffodils along the riverside,
wandering geese among the carpets of grass,
the pink of crabapple trees,
O God,
we are surprised by the hope of nature.

...for our minds and hearts and beings,
caught in the inbetween,
we pray
for peace,
for breathing,
for presence.

Amen.

Monday Prayer: A Better Week

Monday is dawning
Trepidatious first steps
Quiet prayers for peace

Sunday Prayer for Easter 4C

Lord,

You are our Shepherd,

Jesus said he was the Good Shepherd.

But God if you are the good Shepherd, why?

Why must we be so violent? Is it because we don’t trust you as our good shepherd?

Where are you if you are the good shepherd?

Its not just in Boston or New York that people are killed by bombs

Its everywhere God.

It doesn't much feel like green pastures or still waters.

But we need you to make us lie down in green pastures and to lead us beside the still waters.

We all need green pastures and still waters to sooth our souls.

Lord we walk through some dark valleys now with the violence in the world.

We walk through our own dark valleys of death, illnesses, crisis, hardships, and tough times.

We want to believe and to not fear evil, but God sometimes we do fear.

How can this world feel safe if you can even run in a race or

walk in a run/walk event anymore without worrying if there is a bomb planted at the finish line.

We aren't always sure you are there right beside us.

But Lord we all need you right there beside us, guiding us, protecting us and comforting us.

God, our Shepherd we need you to prepare a feast for all of us,

Especially all who are hungry.

We need you to anoint our heads with your oil.

We need goodness and mercy to follow us all our days instead of the hatred, badness, mistreatment,

Bullying, and harming one another.

We all need to live in the house of the LORD our whole life long for there we find peace, your peace that overcomes that which is mean, violent and hard in this world.

Wait a minute Lord it’s us you need to bring the goodness and mercy, peace and reconciliation

into this world.

It’s us that you need to work toward justice and nonviolence so that we can have shalom in this world.

It’s us that need to prepare the feast for all and homes for the homeless.

But God, we want to remain safe and secure.

We don’t want to go to help change the world.

We are afraid.

We don’t want to be the ones you called to go into all the world and make disciples.

Lord forgive us, encourage us, equip us, and yes, send us Lord to change our world.

And Lord go with us as the Good Shepherd of the world.

based on Psalm 23

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Thursday Prayer

Lord, have mercy. Have mercy on those in West, Texas who have had their world turned upside-down. Have mercy on those in Boston still struggling. Have mercy on those in Syria who are living in the midst of bombs and gunshots. Have mercy on those in North Korea who do not have enough to eat today. Have mercy on the 14.9 million children who have been orphaned by AIDS today. Have mercy, Lord Jesus. Have mercy. And in the midst of all of this, give us your heart. Give us the compassion that comes from You. Remind us that we ALL are in great need of your mercy, grace and love.

“Compassion- which means, literally, "to suffer with"- is the way to the truth that we are most ourselves, not when we differ from others, but when we are the same. Indeed the main spiritual question is not, "What difference do you make?" but "What do you have in common?" It is not "excelling" but "serving" that makes us most human. It is not proving ourselves to be better than others but confessing to be just like others that is the way to healing and reconciliation.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

From Renovare USA

Tuesday Prayer

Holy One,
We are bereft,
We are caught in a complex world
filled with uncertainty
even in the safest of places.

We pray, we offer our supplications
for all affected by yesterday's bombings in Boston,
and for all the bombings around the world
we don't even know of.

We pray, we offer our supplications,
for your peace,
for your comfort,
for your compassion
to hold us,
hold us tightly
to your heart.
Amen.

Monday Prayer: When I Should Be Happy

God of all times-

I know I should be happy.
There is a new baby, a new job, a new relationship
Spring comes, blooming
Summer hails, warming
Fall eases, tempering
Winter arrives, sparkling...

And, yet, I am in a season of discontent...
      My laugh is forced. My energy wanes. My heart is heavy.


How long, O Lord, how long?

Alert me to your Presence and awaken me to your Love.
    Float me on the river of your forgiveness and sail me on a sea of mercy and grace.
          Let me see myself through your eyes- lovely, created, redeemed, and still under construction.


Bring me into Your Peace.

Bring me into Your Peace.

Bring me Your Peace.

Bring me Your Peace.

Bring Your Peace.

Bring Your Peace.

Bring Peace.

Bring Peace.

Peace.

Peace.



Peace.




Amen.

Prayer for Easter 3c

God, our God,

You stay by us day and night and.

You deliver us from life’s messes.

We thank you God.

We thank you that you hear us when we cry out for help.

You love us, you heal our wounds, and you deliver us from our downheartedness.

 

We pray for those who are grieving that the time of their weeping

may not last forever but be turned into days of joy.

We pray for those who are in the midst of a crisis

that you guide them through the crisis and that they find their strength in you.

We pray for those who are sick and ailing that they may find

 peace, rest and restoration in you.

Lord you make yourself known to us in so many ways,

help us to not miss those moments.

And just as you told Peter to feed your sheep you call us to feed your sheep today.

Lord may we be faithful to loving you and feeding your sheep.

 

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Help Us Learn

Lord, I will learn also to kneel down into the world of the invisible,
  the inscrutable and the everlasting. Then I will move no more
  than the leaves of a tree
  on a day of no wind, bathed in light, like the wanderer who has come home at last and kneels in peace,
  done with all unnecessary things; every motion; even words.

~Mary Oliver

Discern between things visible and spiritual

Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know, to love what I ought to love, to praise what delights Thee most, to value what is precious in Thy sight, to hate what is offensive to Thee. Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes, nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant people; but to discern with a true judgment between things visible and spiritual, and above all, always to inquire what is the good pleasure of Thy will. 
 
 - Thomas a Kempis

Tuesday Prayer: Open Wide

Rev. Songbird (Martha Spong) was speaking to me of open spaces the other day.  I thought of this song, which we sing at a church I attend on Sunday evenings.   My prayer today is that we all can dare to open wide our hearts in order to find the open spaces of possibility around us.  

Monday Prayer: We Desire to Reborn with You

Light without equal, so pure;
Beauty without peer, so serene;
We desire to be reborn with you.
Power without limits, so strong;
Glory without end, so majestic;
We desire to be reborn with you.

In your kingdom every flower blossoms continuously;
Every tree is always newly in leaf;
We desire to be reborn with you.
Music of sublime charm plays everywhere;
Perfume of sweetest fragrance fills the nostrils;
We desire to be reborn with you.

Thought of you fills our minds;
Love of you fills our hearts;
We desire to be reborn with you.
Desire for you fills our bodies;
Knowledge of you fills our souls;
We desire to be reborn in you.

- Mahayana Buddhist prayer

Sunday prayer for Easter 2C

God,

We are your Easter people living in the hope of resurrection.

Yet, we live in a world that is increasingly more difficult to live in

Lord we need hope and we need to share that hope with others.

Lord we prayer for those whose world may still be covered in the darkness of grief

instead of the sunlight, lighten their load of grief.

We pray for those who are ill, in the hospitals, facing surgery, or going through treatments,

Sustain them with your loving care.

We pray for those who live with chronic illnesses, Surround them with your peace and faithfulness.

Lord may we be messengers of Easter hope to those in need by our word and deed.

May we be your Easter people bringing restoration and justice to this hurting world.

Amen

cross posted at revgalblogpals

Grant us peace in our time

O Thou protector of the universe, 
ruler of its destiny, abode of happiness and peace, 
ocean of mercy, friend of the poor, 
destroyer of the pangs of want, 
everlasting, whole, 
unending, beginningless, 
perfect, ancient of days, 
refuge of thy people, 
beloved of the heart, 
and guardian and mainstay of life, 
grant us peace in our time.  Amen.

(From Book of Prayers, by M. K. Gandhi, 1999, Berkeley Hills Books)

Tuesday Prayer

God.
Big SIGH.
God, ground of being, in you is life in all its fullness...
I have exactly nothing to say to You.
I just need to rest in You, trust in You, draw strength from You.
But words,
I really have none.
But this chant, I love.
It's the song prayer of my heart today.
Amen.