BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
March 2, 2021
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Everybody’s talking at me; I can’t hear a word they’re saying,
only the echoes of my mind.
People stopping staring, I can’t see their faces,
only the shadows of their eyes…
(Harry Nilsson)
There was confusion in our day today, as in most days; many shrewd and shrill voices competed for our attention. Only you, O Lord, can bring order out commotion and clarity out of our confusion. Settle us down this evening you have bequeathed us, as we enter your certainty and find our rest in you. Realign the ear of our hearts that we might attend to your words alone. Reconfigure our dreams, that we would desire nothing apart from your will.
O Master of Life, we promised to bow before no ruler but you, yet we now confess that we have sought applause from those who do not know your name. We even tolerate companions who dismiss you altogether. We have once again slipped into the lure of earthly acclaim, attending to voices promising happiness, but leading to insignificance. We wonder how many, in searching for Jesus, witnessed our own worldly example and sadly turned away. Loving God, forgive the ways in which we have dishonored you. Here in silence and meekness, let us wait for that one true voice in the crowd, the voice of our Savior who knows our sins and bids us start anew . . . . . . . . . .
We tend to think of the Lenten Season as solely a spartan existence in the wilderness, much as Jesus’ own desert sojourn. And as we search the refuse within our own souls, we find it can be a melancholy trek. But we thank you, Sacred Friend, that in your gentle mercy, you have surprised us with a flood of gifts along the way: a multitude of gorgeous days and warm temperatures, resolutions to throbbing challenges, a curing vaccine you helped create, restoration and healing for friends and family, new babies born, and the opportunity for in-person worship. By your sustaining largesse, we are humbled, and also remember these personal favors you have presented in recent days . . . . . . . . . . . .
Knowing your mercy is not reserved for a few, but touches every life, we bring you these thanksgivings and also the needs expressed by members of your Church Street family:
- Gratitude for prayers: Couple with Covid celebrate recovery
- Prayers appreciated: Monday surgery went smoothly
- Ill member grateful for a day without pain
- Five offer thanks for recent vaccinations
- Gratitude: One has received a caregiver
- Pray for dear friend in car crash, paralysis is feared
- An adult son suffering from addictions
- Easing anxiety of new mother-to-be
- Upholding one facing treatment for lymphoma
- Longtime friend with pancreatic cancer & his wife who is caregiver
- Prayers: Colleague on ventilator with Covid
- Upholding family mourning a loved one
- Prayers for one having cancer surgery March 5
- Easing of side effects from radiation treatment
- Colleague facing whipple surgery March 4
- One mourning the end of 2-year relationship
- Prayers for one bearing side effects of chemo
- Two members recovering from recent surgeries
- Healing for hospitalized mother
Keeper of the Night, we close our day with calmer hearts and take our rest in thanksgiving for your renewing love. And in the dark hours, should you have a word for us, may our hearts be open enough to bid you welcome, saying, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”
Our Father 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.
