Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of May 30, 2021
Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
O Triune God: Creator, Christ, and Spirit, we do not understand your love for us, nor do we fully understand how you move in our world and in our lives. We can only bow to the mystery of your affection and faithfulness; indeed, your abiding presence is our greatest treasure! When we falter and fail, it is your mercy that redeems us. When daunted by our trials, it is your grace that sustains us. And when we doubt our own abilities, it is your holy breath that fills us with boldness and courage to serve as you have asked. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!”
Your generosity abounds, O Friend of Life, and we are recipients of abundance; yet why is it that we demand more and more? We deplete our natural resources by taking more than we need; we reduce forest and field to wasteland, disregarding important habitats of wild creatures; we squander the inborn splendor of your earth in our quest for goods and manufactured entertainment. Prick our collective conscience, O Framer of the World, that we might repent of our self-indulgence before we have marred the good earth beyond reparation. And bless those, we pray, who dedicate their lives to preservation of the unique and sacred home you have made for your people. Give us grace to walk that more gentle and sacred path.
We hear the bitter cries of the hurting across the globe, O Lord, and the sound singes our souls. For children dying of gun violence, Lord have mercy. For those bereft in the Middle East, whose lives and homes are shattered by terrorism, Lord have mercy. For those who have lost everything due to substance abuse, Lord have mercy. For those tormented ones in India suffering illness and death due to the Covid virus, Lord have mercy. For the brokenness of those whom our own nation has failed, Lord have mercy. Each human life has a name, a face, and a story, and you know each intimately, O Christ. All these, who are beloved of God, we lift up to your care, and also ask that your mercy would surround also these whom you also love, members of our Church Street family:
- Young couple growing in their marriage relationship
- Healing: hospitalized member with heart malady
- An elderly father who is lonely & depressed
- An ill grandfather, for correct diagnosis
- Healing for husband with long-term Covid symptoms
- One seeking reconciliation with her family
- Safety for traveling church families
- Healing for a son in detox program
- For healing of a painful hip injury
- Brother with mouth malignancy
- Friend grieving the death of her sister on May 23
- That families will take advantage of summer “Catch-Up” academics
- Healing for both husband & wife recovering from recent surgeries
- Courage for one facing radiation treatment
- Husband who is failing, strength for his wife who is caregiver
- Calm and peace for a mother facing extensive surgery
- Healing for two struggling with serious anemia
We pray in unity, Holy One, because we are people of hope, believing that suffering and death never have the last word. May our own thanksgivings we now offer remain a sign to our neighbors that our God offers mercy and grace:
- Gratitude: Kidney surgery successful
- Mother with advanced cancer was able to see her daughter graduate from high school – her year-long prayer answered
- Knee surgery successful
- Thanksgiving for endurance throughout prolonged cancer treatment
- One grateful for ability to work during chemotherapy
- Two families thankful for long-awaited vacations
- Prayers appreciated: knee mobility is improving with PT
- Gratitude: friends who uphold one in his trials
- Thankful: elderly father’s continued good health
- Those working to alleviate inequities & gun violence in our community
- Couple celebrating their wedding anniversary this week
- Signs of healing following retina surgery
- Thanks for prayers: brother’s suspected cancer was benign
All these prayers and petitions we offer today in the name of our Holy Keeper: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
