O Light of Each New Day and Luster of Evening Star, we tremble when we consider how your goodness permeates every hour of every day!  You have brought us safely to this point, as the curtain of dusk falls softly all around. And here in the shadows we ponder how your holiness has touched our encounters in this week just passed: the stranger that offered a helping hand, the promising report from a physician, the cheery note that arrived when most needed, the safe arrival at a destination, worship moments that filled our hearts to the brim, friends who demonstrated their concern, and also . . . . . . . . . . We thank you, Lord, for coming to us in such quiet graciousness; you slip in unheralded, so softly that we often overlook your presence.  Ah, but here in these moments, we recall how your providence ever flows through circumstances, creating blessings where none are expected or deserved. 

Faithful Spirit, receive our prayer.

Keeper of All Our Stories, you know the stories of our lives – of the times we failed miserably, when we chose the wrong roads, when we were betrayed, when we placed our trust in the wrong places and persons, when our dreams collapsed, the times when grief overtook us, when bitter tears were our food day and night.  Even in these times, remembering your own story of suffering, you colored our hurts with your love, cradled us in your arms, told us that there is always a new beginning, and that your mercy would help us find it.  As you gather us under your wings, remind us that all our stories begin and end in you, for you are also the Keeper of our Souls.

Faithful Spirit, receive our prayer.

You know us through and through, Lord, and we pray we might come to know ourselves in entirety as well.  Surprise us with insights into our own assumptions and motives; give us wisdom to ask the most difficult questions of ourselves. Move us out of our complacency into a life of fullness.  

Faithful Spirit, receive our prayer.

Accept, O Lord, these private prayers we carry in our hearts . . . . . . . . . . and also these praises and concerns offered by your people at Church Street:

• Gratitude: our gifted high school seniors who led Sunday worship 
• Thankful that a husband with Parkinson’s is regaining strength
• Family celebrate a successful pacemaker procedure this week
• Blessed news of a daughter’s pregnancy
• One appreciates successful surgery & all who prayed
• Member gives thanks for a wonderful vacation
• Grateful for the Spirit’s presence in a mother’s peaceful death
• Thanksgiving for a son’s happy wedding last weekend
• One offers thanks for friends who offered help & wisdom in regard to an important decision
• Family thankful for daughter’s beautiful beach wedding on Saturday
• Gratitude: a member has overcome a second bout of Covid
• Grateful for prayers – cancer patient has not contracted Covid after exposure
• Two grateful for having overcome recent illnesses
• Prayers that innocents in Ukraine might be protected
• Wisdom for leaders of the free world to help end the war in Ukraine 
• All who are grieving the deaths of loved ones
• Guidance for family making decisions following bereavement
• Courage & healing for member with advanced cancer & her family
• Wisdom & guidance for daughter facing a bitter divorce
• Husband with Parkinson’s, easing of depression & help with his caregiving
• Prayers for all young people making transitions this season & their families 
• Prayers that a pathology report is clear
• Infirm member anxious about an upcoming physical evaluation
• Couple experiencing downturn in income, seek financial security 
• Healing of an extreme voice ailment & the sufferer’s depression   
• Continued prayers: friend injured in accident, remains in ICU
• Healing for two women with untreatable eye disease 
• Addressing of poverty in our community 
• Correct diagnosis for mother with heart condition
• Young man seeking work in college athletics
• For the Spirit to abide with family during memorial service on Saturday 
• An uncle & grandmother in hospice care & their families
• An ill mother-in-law & concerned family, for recovery

Faithful Spirit, we would be channels of your light, mercy, and peace as we live out our days; so fill us with grace that we may open ourselves to be used in whatever ways you desire. And, as always, we offer all these things in the name of the Risen Christ, who taught us to pray: 

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.

From the grain of the field and from the fruit of the vine you continue to feed us, O Sustainer.  Having received the bread of life and the cup of grace in our community this past Sunday, you addressed our brokenness and have given us strength to go out in your world and feed others who do not know of your mercy.  Without your divine energy regularly implanted within us, we could not venture to reach out to those who are difficult to love, to speak a word of kindness to those who question our motives and may even hold us in contempt.  And though we often fumble, we believe you know of our deep desire to do for others what you have done for us.  Continue to feed us your mysteries, we pray, that the outpouring of your love through Christ will be made manifest in our lives.

Enduring One, hear our prayer.

As each day of this week unfolds, we ask that your mercy would accompany us, for you know how swiftly we can make that wrong turn called discouragement. There are those detours that haunt us daily: our worries about family members and friends, the news of bloodshed and atrocities across the world, reports of famine and needless deaths of the innocents, the deep divide within our nation’s leadership, the growing number of drug addictions, and the multitudes suffering natural disasters.  We often feel our efforts are so paltry in the face of these complex situations; but save us from despair, we pray, for your love can permeate every circumstance and every heart.  Place your hands upon our hearts as we move through each tomorrow we are given, that we will always trust in your promise to watch over our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Enduring One, hear our prayer.

And we confess that most tenacious temptation – our desire to please ourselves.   Still that voice within us — that voice that mimics the noise of the marketplace, whispering that we need more and more of the world’s goods. You have filled us to overflowing and have blessed us in ways we do not merit. So let us be content with what we have and give praise to the Giver of all good gifts!

Enduring One, hear our prayer.

And because you are the Author of our Faith, whose only Son endured all things for our sake, we are bold to turn to you with our joys and with our burdens.  

• Thankful an ill brother-in-law is home from rehab
• Member is grateful for her new solid employment position
• Family celebrates the baptism of their young daughter
• Gratitude for good report following evaluation at Vanderbilt
• A brother’s surgery went well on Monday at Vanderbilt
• Thanksgiving for presentation by our Youth & Children’s Choirs
• Member thankful for recent eye treatment
• Family celebrates the birth of healthy baby boy
• Family grateful for an opportunity to live abroad next year
• Family grateful for prayers: home purchase is final
• Thanksgiving for the Christian witness of two members who will be buried this week
• Couple celebrating their wedding anniversary this week
• Thanksgiving an arm infection has almost completely healed
• Prayers for an end to the horror & violence in Ukraine
• Three member families who are grieving deaths this week
• Courage for 4 church members with Parkinson’s 
• Lift up our high school seniors & their families this season
• Prayers that a pathology report is clear
• Prayers for couple seeking financial security
• Please pray for 5 persons on the heart of a member
• Singer with a voice malady, healing of illness & depression 
• Prayers for a young son whose father died of an overdose  
• Continued prayers: friend injured in accident, remains in ICU
• Healing for two women with untreatable eye disease 
• Correct diagnosis for mother with heart condition
• Cancer patient exposed to Covid, pray that she is not infected
• Young man seeking work in college athletics
• Ease of pain for son awaiting shoulder surgery 
• An uncle & grandmother in hospice care & their families
• An ill mother-in-law & concerned family, for recovery 
• A grandson with a difficult home life
• Prayers for all taking part in a wedding on Saturday 

We thank you, Enduring One, for knitting us together as the body of Christ and for accepting our prayers that are offered in the name of your Son. May your Spirit continue its sustaining flow within us and through us until we reach those gates above, where we shall joyfully serve together with Jesus himself.

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.

Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew,

That I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do. 

Breathe on me, Breath of God. Breathe on us, Breath of God. Life-giving God, we are thankful for the image in our scriptures of Jesus breathing on the disciples and offering peace. We remember your breathing over the waters and bringing forth creation; breathing into humanity as you formed us in your image. O God we pray that as we inhale, we would take in your grace and love and all that is good. We desire to feel your presence in our very beings; at our core; in our hearts. Breathe on us the transforming breath of Jesus; the transformative breath… We pray for a calmness when we are facing tense situations and difficult conversations. Breathe on us.

We pray for peace in our world; breathe on our leaders and those around the world who make decisions based on maps and land and power, not on the hearts and wellbeing of people. Breathe on them; fill them with life anew. We pray for a steadiness of heart as Christians as we make decisions.  We pray for an abundance of your Spirit as we read your scriptures and seek guidance for our living. Breathe on us.

We pray for your church, O God. Breathe on your church – for ministers and laity everywhere who strive to build up the body of Christ and your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We especially pray for those young ones who were confirmed on Sunday in our congregation as they seek to walk in the way of Christ. And bless, we pray, each one who has recently come forward to be baptized and to become a new members of our congregation. Guide them to find here nurture in faith, true fellowship, and a place of joyful service. Breathe on us; fill us with life anew.

Spirit of Life, as you hav delivered healing and revived hope to so many, we bring our prayers of praise this day.  And may your divine energy move within us and through us, Holy Lord, that we may become conduits of holy healing to these others who wait for your breath of renewal:

• Gratitude for prayers: member recovers from successful hip surgery
• Thanksgiving that a niece’s home has sold
• Couple celebrates 40 years of marriage
• Daughter thankful for her mother’s successful surgery
• Prayers appreciated: no sign of cancer cells following transplant
• Prayers of gratitude: a daughter’s home has sold
• Widow feels blessed in a new home closer to family
• One expresses gratitude for support of congregation
• Gratitude: 2 families steadily recovering from Covid infections
• Parents thankful for a son’s renewed effort to combat drug use
• Ovarian cancer surgery completed with good results – grateful for prayers
• One grateful for a restorative short vacation with friend
• Thanksgiving that a friend’s cancer cells have been contained
• Prayers for an end to the horror & violence in Ukraine
• Prayers for husband with Parkinson’s – increasing difficulties
• A father with Parkinson’s & his family; for a workable treatment plan
• Easing of stress: family awaiting a home closing
• Prayers for proper diagnosis- member returns to Vanderbilt Thursday
• Professional singer with a voice malady, for healing & direction
• Proper treatment for a brother with cancer near bladder 
• Elderly neighbor injured in car accident, now on ventilator 
• Hospitalized mother & wisdom for family making decisions  
• Please pray for healing: two women with untreatable eye disease 
• Correct diagnosis for mother with heart condition
• Healing young granddaughter having seizures
• Young man seeking work in college athletics
• Son with shoulder injury, comfort as he awaits surgery
• An uncle in hospice care & peace for his family standing by
• Prayers that a young son recently exposed does not contract Covid
• Prayers for anxious couple awaiting news of pregnancy
• An ill mother-in-law & concerned family, for recovery 
• Healing for nephew in cancer treatment  

Inhaling and exhaling is such a simple act, an involuntary act; yet without it we would die. As we breathe in, O God, may we remember that we are raised in new life with Christ. May we live into that life.

Breathe on us breath of God; fill us with life anew.

That we would love what thou wouldst love; and do what thou wouldst do.

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.