Open our eyes, O God;
And our minds;
And our hearts;
And our hands;
And our spirits;
So that in these everyday moments that add up to a lifetime;
We can see and recognize and name Your presence with us and among us.
So that we can see and name…
Your love and compassion and care and forgiveness;
Interwoven in the stories of our own lives;
Turning us;
Leading us;
Guiding us;
In the direction You would have us go;
Shaping us into the people You would have us be.
People who love the world and everyone in it the way You love the world and everyone in it.
And so, may our prayers stretch out from our lives
Large enough and bold enough
To encircle and to embrace those whom we name and more.
And, as always, O God,
We pray that our lives follow where our prayers first lead.
Amen.
A Prayer
We confess, O God, that more often than not our prayers are prayers said on the run. Words whispered in midst of the daily push and pull of life as it is for us.
Pushed outwards towards another and also to You.
Prayers like…
Thank you.
O my God!
Did you hear?
I’m so sorry.
That is so wonderful.
But, maybe we also need a moment for something more.
So settle us into this moment, O God, that we might pray a bit more deeply;
Being mindful not only of our own lives, but the also the lives of those around us and those whom we love and those whom we know and all those within the circle of Your love. And, may we pause long enough that we might also listen for that still, small voice which would speak to us still.
O God, hear our prayers.
And, may we hear Yours.
Amen.
A Prayer…
With whatever else our prayers might do or mean, O God;
Maybe they also serve as a reminder.
A reminder…
That gratitude is deeper and richer when it is shared with those for whom we care and who care about us.
That sorrows and burdens are less heavy when others stand with us refusing to let us go.
That sadness may break our hearts, but will not break our lives when there are others who help hold us up.
That hatred and violence and indifference and greed; anything that degrades or defames another human being will not have the final word as long as our voices and our lives together proclaim otherwise.
And, so today we remember, O God…
To give thanks.
To stand with.
To support and to care.
To link our lives and voices and to turn in the direction of hope and Your Grand Dream meant for us and for all.
With that we pray for one another and for the world entrusted, now, to our care and keeping which You continue to love so much.
And, as always, O God…
May our lives follow where our prayers first lead.
Amen.
A Prayer for Today
In whatever way we do…
And with whatever words we use…
We bind our prayers together…
And push those wild whispers of faith out towards each other and out into the world entrusted now to our care and keeping;
Believing that our prayers matter and make a difference.
That we can, in fact, add our gratitude the gratitude of another.
And our joy to the joy of another.
And lend our strength and support and concern and hope to those who find themselves in need.
And, so we pray, O God…
For all those for whom this day life is difficult and filled with more darkness than light and more uncertainty than clarity.
And, we do pause long enough this day to say Thank you.
Thank you for the gift of this day.
Thank you for those communities of faith which touch and enrich our lives and the lives of so many others.
Thank you the daily grace which brushes up against our lives often catching us off guard and unaware.
And, this, too, O God…
May our lives follow where our prayers first lead.
Amen.
Still praying…
In all of the moments we have ever known, O God;
And in this moment…now;
You are present.
Above us.
Beneath us.
Before us.
Behind us.
Beside us.
In our joy and our sorrow;
In our successes and our failures.
When we are at our best;
And when we are not
You are there.
So, we come to this moment just as we are;
Whether filled to the brim or almost empty;
Broken or whole or somewhere in between;
We come to this moment to pray.
To open ourselves to that Something More
That we know and long for and send outwards towards one another.
We pray for those who we know and name.
For those closest to us whose life is wrapped up with ours.
We pray, too, for those whose names we don’t know, but who we do know also live within the orbit of Your love and care, O God. And we pray, too, for ourselves that we might continue to turn towards hope and faithfulness and gratitude and grace.
May it be so, O God.
May it be so.
Amen.
A Prayer for Today
We do our best to pray, O God.
Not just with the words we say;
But also with our hearts and our lives.
Refusing to turn away from that inherent tension that is so much a part of life and love. The tension…
Between promise and pain;
Between hope and heart break;
Between celebration and sorrow.
And so, we open our hearts and our lives to all who stand within in the circle of Your care. In other words, we do our best to open our hearts and our lives to all. We pray first for all those who find themselves in need this day. For those whom we know and for those beyond our knowing, but who live within the circle of Your eternal care and keeping.
And, in our best moments we know this, O God.
Our first and best prayer is always Thank you which we admit we sometimes too easily forget in the push and pull of life as it is. So, this morning Thank you. Thank you for the reminders of gratitude and grace that daily brush up against our lives. For life and love, and for this day that was not promised to us which is so full of promise. And, in this moment which we have right now, we add our gratitude and our joy and our thanks for all that and more.
Please, O God…
And Thank you.
Our prayers this morning.
Amen.
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