O God of Wonder, we scurry about, scouring the aisles for gifts that please family and friends, too often overlooking the wondrous basket of blessings you have already set before us.  You have given us life itself, the opportunity to live, learn and share in the marvels of your creation.  You offer us our beloved church community which nourishes us with thoughtfulness and challenges us to become more faithful disciples.  When we draw back, fearing we aren’t good enough, you nudge us to use our talents for your worthy purposes.  When our pride swells, you turn our hearts again to the life of the One Most Humble.  When we grumble about our setbacks, you point us toward the healing way.  We make mistake after mistake, yet you hand us a cup overflowing with grace.  How dare we desire anything more this season, Beloved Benefactor, for you are the essence of all things holy and good!

Silent One, may our souls join with the shepherds who wait patiently in the fields as night closes in.  How deftly does the extraordinary cloak itself in typical garb; and if we do not quiet ourselves, we may miss both the messenger and the message. Perhaps we will be stunned by wonders spanning the sky.  Maybe we will hear angelic voices singing of newborn love.  Or maybe the sign will be only a whisper of assurance that penetrates the heart. In whatever manner it comes, may we be prepared to follow until we discover for ourselves the wonder we know to be true.  It is this Truth in which all our hopes and dreams are met.

As you were delivered on that sacred eve, so you came to deliver us from ourselves and from whatever threatens to separate us from your glory. We recognize the dark parts of our world engulfed in apathy, bitterness, pain, and loss. O Christ, open our souls to receive the good news of your very self, we pray, and bring us into the wonder of your living presence. And knowing the light of your mercy, we lift up those who are in need this night, particularly . . . . . . . . . . ; and we also pray you would touch each of these friends at Church Street who look to you as their Savior:

• Thankful for husband’s improvement (Parkinson’s diagnosis)
• Family offers thanks for a marriage blessing on Saturday
• Family celebrates first family gathering in three years
• Grateful: A father’s health is improving
• Thanksgiving for freedom for kidnapped missionaries in Haiti
• Member thankful for church support during his bereavement
• Member appreciates friends who are helping her in days of need
• Thanksgiving: mother in rehab, progressing steadily
• Gratitude: Uplifting worship and music ministry
• Praises that a brother’s prostate surgery was successful
• One celebrates a good grade in a difficult graduate course
• Pray for friend whose tongue was removed yesterday- cancer
• Prayers for member recovering in ICU
• Prayers for mother enduring chemo for lung cancer
• Healing for daughter, ill with colitis
• Support for a brother with Parkinson’s
• Grace for member valiantly enduring cancer treatments
• Upholding all church families in mourning during the holidays
• Mother with lung cancer, that chemo may be tolerated
• Young couple in Nashville hospitalized with serious illnesses
• God’s grace to surround a mother with cancer, for renewed hope
• Healing for cherished husband suffering from Parkinson’s and stress
• Faithful husband struggling with memory loss
• Member grieving the untimely death of her cousin
• Longtime friend in Atlanta, ill with Covid and alone on Christmas
• Grace to uphold dear friend soon to be placed in hospice care
• Strength for daughter, extreme complications from Covid
• For doors of employment to open for a talented professional man
• Beloved husband undergoing chemotherapy
• Wisdom and strength: Young mother enduring a painful separation
• Healing two families: Parents estranged from children

You have come anew to every time and every age, Holy One, so we abide in confidence of your arrival to renew your covenant with us.  “Do not fear, only believe,” said the Teacher, reassuring a troubled father.  May those words echo within us this winter of uncertainty, as we plant our trust once again in the Son of the Most High, who taught us to pray in this way:

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.

Today indeed we make a joyful noise before the Lord and raise our voices in song!  O One of Unsearchable Greatness, we remember how your breath wafted over the chaos, bringing a sublime calm and order.  We remember how you fashioned from nothingness the heavens and the earth, both teeming with life. We ponder your terrifying power that created the mountains and called forth the waters, giving them shape and order and purpose.  And in your own loneliness, you gave life to humankind, counting us as your beloved companions.  How mystifying is your universe, O Lord, and our words fail to touch its grandeur.  And how privileged we are that we might join our voices with all generations past in blessing your Holy Name!

God of All Goodness, hear our prayer.

You have honored us with Jesus Christ, whom you sent to reveal the truth of your love, your hopes and dreams for your people.  And even when he was ignored, abused, and crucified, he told us he understood and that we were forgiven.  How astonishing is the depth of your affection and the wideness of your mercy, O Lord! 

God of All Goodness, hear our prayer.

We give you thanks, O Guide Above and Beside Us, that we can bring our prayers to you, for you are the God who listens to our lives; and we know there have been moments when we have chosen the wrong over the right. We remember those instances when we could have helped others, but we attended to our own priorities.  There were those persons we could have befriended, but we hurried past.  There were times we could have shared a loving thought with someone who was hurting, but we remained silent. There were occasions when we could have expressed our faith in you, yet we uttered mere platitudes. We thank you, Merciful One, that it is not too late for our transformation.  Blot out the sullied parts of our past and cleanse our motivations.  We can never reach perfection, but we trust in your Spirit to take everything that we do and use it for your good purposes.

God of All Goodness, hear our prayer.

Spirit of Wholeness, pour out your balm of healing upon your people who are in pain and sorrow. Heal the divisions and brokenness within our own nation, we pray. Our hearts also break when we hear of migrants from the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia who endure freezing temperatures and deprivation as they seek a place to call home; when we learn of the increased violence against the innocents in Sudan; as we receive news that 14 million people in Afghanistan now face daily hunger; and as another Covid19 wave sweeps across Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Russia. Forgive us when we separate ourselves from the suffering of others near and far. May all who are hurting cling to you even when their hope has grown thin. 

God of All Goodness, hear our prayer.

And as we offer petitions on behalf of our friends at Church Street, strengthen our sense of kinship with all whom you love:

• Church family celebrates a son’s engagement
• Member grateful for prayers, recovering well following surgery
• Thankful an ill friend is home from hospital
• Grateful to all who assembled and delivered 130 Thanksgiving boxes for our hungry neighbors
• Gratitude for a friend’s successful knee replacement
• Appreciation for prayers: Dear friend died in peace and comfort
• One praises God for her multitude of blessings
• Thankful for prayers: Ill father returning home for Thanksgiving
• Heart patient thankful for prayers of church on his behalf
• Gratitude for husband’s healing following heart surgery
• Husband thankful for wife’s recovery from bronchial infection
• Thanksgiving for continued healing following surgery
• God’s healing presence with couple who remain secluded due to illness
• Safety for a young son, musician who travels widely
• All who are grieving during the holidays
• Safe travel to California for soon-to-be-grandmother
• Courage, guidance for one enduring physical emotional trials
• A mother who faces another colon surgery and healing of her dangerous infection
• Healing relationship between a father and his adult children
• Continued prayers for member with vision impairment
• Correct diagnosis of Parkinson’s-related illness
• Peace for a dying brother and the presence of the Spirit with all family members
• Family sustaining multiple challenges during the holidays
• Cherished father in rehab, in failing health 
• Prayers for our church and our 2021 stewardship effort
• God’s guidance and healing for a mother with cancer diagnosis 
• Continued strength for member in cancer treatment
• Prayers for gravely ill daughter and her distraught family
• Correct diagnosis for member experiencing heart problems 
• Upholding church family grieving death of young son 
• Four family friends mourning deaths of loved ones
• Sister who faces cancer scans December 3

God of Goodness, we celebrate your presence with us and pray you would wrap us all in your peace each night, as you turn down the lights of heaven. May our dreams be filled with memories of your eternal grace. We lay these prayers at your feet in the name of your most caring Son Jesus, who taught us to pray in this way:

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.

And what do you have that you did not receive? 

And if also you did receive it, why do you boast 

as not having received it?   (I Cor. 4:7)

Ah, the apostle has rightly spoken – for what have we acquired that did not come to us from Divine beneficence?  What do we possess that was not provided by the hands and sacrifice of others?  Forgive us, Lord, for our narrow thinking and for our failure to respond fully to your grace. We confess we have withheld that which is rightly yours, spending mainly to satisfy our own limited interests.    We have withheld even ourselves, ignoring your continued offer of fullness of life through Christ. We know we can do better; by your grace, may it be so.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Enduring Cornerstone, remind us that we are the living stones which form your Church. We are bound together by your very self, who gave your all that we might live. Your gifts cascade so freely we are prone to forget they come with responsibility. Chip away our rough and selfish edges, we pray, that we might fit more tightly together, adding strength and shape to your holy edifice of benevolence.  We would be known as believers with open hands and open lives, willing to sacrifice so that the nameless and forgotten ones are drawn into your fortress of love.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Nearest Friend, this week we pray for our friends and neighbors, near and far.  Comfort and deliver especially all who are living with grave losses, those who live in the throes of poverty and need, others who are oppressed by violence, and those who flee war and devastation in their homelands.  Guide us and all in power to work for the common good. As scripture has taught: those whom much is given, much is required.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

God of the Circling Years, your faithfulness spans generations, and your mercy never fails to astound us.  In Jesus, you walked where we walk, shared the burdens of life, were touched by the same joys, temptations, and sorrows as we. We need hide nothing from you, for you are aware of our longings, our pain, our hopes, and our fears. Therefore, we turn again to you on bended knee, acknowledging you as our Source of all healing and wholeness.  

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Aware that you accept every prayer uttered in earnest, we lay before you these that come from the hearts of your people at Church Street.  In your mercy, accept the praise of those who bring thanksgiving and touch the souls of those who are bruised and afflicted:

• Grateful that ill husband now safely placed in rehab facility
• Prayers appreciated: Grandson is managing chemo well
• Gratitude for prayers: Weekend wedding was perfect
• Member in rehab making steady progress
• Thanksgiving: Heart surgery deemed successful
• Thanks for prayers – badly bruised hand is healing
• Praises! Family welcomes newborn baby after 3 miscarriages
• Pray that one will be approved for an apartment
• Prayers: Young daughter undergoing surgery Monday and her family
• Granddaughter in D.C. having hip replacement Monday
• Prayers that recent back procedure will prove effective
• Healing for one recovering from delicate surgery at Vanderbilt today
• Courage and strength for family grieving death of young son
• Son-in-law grieving the deaths of family members due to Covid 
• Solace for member coping with anxiety
• Strength for couple giving care to ill parents
• Wisdom for a young son contemplating dropping out of school
• Sustaining member in extended cancer treatment
• Dear friend (advancing ALS) – guidance in finding residential care 
• Healing prayers for daughter hospitalized with sepsis 
• Healing for two members enduring immense back pain
• Strength, courage for husband with Parkinson’s

In addition to these, O Lord, we ask that you would gift us with wisdom and patience as we strive for that peace which passes all understanding.  And now,  as you are the God of All Good Gifts, release in us the spirit of new life – that life which is in full relationship with you and your Blessed Son who taught us to pray in this way:

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.

This week, O Lord, our hearts turn to you as we remember all those saints whom you have called and who have walked among us throughout the years.  We remember your disciples who spent their time in this realm empowering the meek, encouraging the poor, and lifting up the forlorn.  We recall how they honored the neglected, respected the desires of the disadvantaged, and valued the least and the lost. For their wisdom and witness, we praise you!                 

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

And still in this era, your saints walk alongside us: bringing peace where there is discord, sowing goodness where there is distrust, spreading hope where despair has taken root.  In your own mystifying way, you call ordinary folk to carry out your ministry in extraordinary ways.  We pray you would sustain your saints who are in ministry this very day, and particularly these blessed ones who have made such a difference in our individual lives: . . . . . . . . . .  We know you as our Forever Guide, so empower us, that we also might shine as these who live in brightest faith even when tribulations descend.                                                                              

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord of the Dismayed, some days we are simply unable to take in all the pain that thrives in our world, communities, and in our own households.  We confess that our own faith grows dim when we consider all the misfortunes that are holding your people hostage.  Our own efforts seem so paltry, and we tire so easily. Draw close and make yourself known to those who are overwhelmed. Gaze upon those who are ill or frightened as they face a diagnosis, illness, surgery, poverty, or any sort of loss. And as our arms are too short to wrap around those whom you love, we pray you would embrace all those who believe they have been forgotten.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

As the apostle has written, we see through a glass darkly. We cannot comprehend your will and your ways; nor can we fathom the manner in which you are moving in our world.  But, Good Lord, we do know you hear the cries of our hearts, that you will never leave us comfortless, and that one day we shall see clearly. Until that day, we believe your grace covers all, and that you are attending each one who prays in your name.  Therefore, we bring these praises and pleas offered by members of the Church Street family:

• Two families celebrate births of healthy baby daughters on Wednesday
• Couple thankful for safe travel to Europe
• Gratitude for the ministry of our church choirs
• Member offers thanks for an unspoken miracle in her life
• Thanksgiving for the peaceful death of an ill mother
• Thanksgiving for healthcare workers who valiantly serve
• Grateful for prayers – member’s back pain is vastly improved
• Strength, wisdom for daughter, prime caregiver of aging father
• Member thankful for recent visit of family members
• Family grateful for prayers, daughter (Covid) continues to improve
• Solace for members who mourn the loss of loved ones
• Prayers for husband with Parkinson’s & his wife, caregiver
• Healing for cherished father/husband hospitalized Monday
• Courage for one facing difficult procedure at Vanderbilt
• Proper diagnosis for one enduring fainting
• Continued prayers for grandson (17) in cancer treatment
• Courage, strength for one beginning chemo next week
• Healing prayers for wife recovering from dangerous fall
• Prayers for a young wife, soon to deliver first child 
• Children of Grace School in Uganda, for a way forward 
• Courage for one, extended chemotherapy, & devoted husband
• Members asks for prayers for her parents, both cancer victims
• Two sons in treatment for addiction

Grant this day, and each day ahead, Beloved Presence, that we might make a quiet space in our hearts for you. Join us in those silent moments, reminding us that you are ready to wipe away our sins, offering us the privilege of making a fresh start with each dawn. Wrap us now in the peace of your Spirit as we offer this prayer in the name of Christ, our Savior:

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.

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of October 6, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

O Author of All Our Days, our lives seem so scattered in this modern era, and we are quick to attach our lives to strings that others pull.  Go here! they say; Do that! they advise;  Follow me! they urge. And we confess that we frequently allow ourselves to be caught up in efforts that do not enrich our souls. Teach us, we pray, to listen more closely to the calling you so tenderly place in each of our hearts, to attend to your faint voice that whispers your will for us each day.  By your grace, help us live up to our commitment to Christ, and to realign our calendars, that we would find joy in the slackened pace, in your gift of the moment. As the apostle has said, What does it matter if we gain the world, if our hearts are not beating with the love of our Lord?  

In the liturgical year, the Church now finds itself in Ordinary Time, set apart from the high holy days. What better time to consider the mundane, the repetitive tasks of daily living – dusting and laundering, cooking and straightening, scouring and sweeping? In your great wisdom, O God of Harmony, you knew that if we performed these routine, ordinary chores, we might then become better stewards of our lives. For in ordering our households, companionship, creativity, learning and laughter, conversation and enjoyment might then have room to flourish. We remember our Savior who taught that every service performed with love, no matter how humble, will not be forgotten. Give us an openness of spirit, we pray, to once again discover both the joy and the importance of simple things.

God of Healing and Wholeness, we face the brokenness of our bodies, our spirits, and our relationships; and we confess that we do falter in our faith in this time of dread, disease, and dissension. Yes, some of our misfortunes we have brought upon ourselves; forgive our blindness, we pray.  Still other adversities stalk us through no fault of our own, and in our humanness, we search for explanations, when there are no explanations to be found.  As we are made in your image, O Divine One, you understand our pain and our perplexities; so come sit with us and linger awhile as we try to fashion a plan to move forward in faith.  Dispel our doubts, we pray, as we lift up the broken parts of ourselves to your healing. 

And hear also these praises and petitions that are offered by your people at Church Street. We know you as our refuge and strength in time of trouble; yet you have asked us not to give in to fear.  May it be so:

• Gratitude for prayers: Aortic valve surgery successful
• Thankfulness for life of a beloved husband
• One celebrates a clear cancer scan
• Bereaved member sends gratitude for support of church
• ALS sufferer thankful for outpouring of financial help
• Praises that knee surgery went smoothly
• Member thankful for recent financial gift
• Family grateful for God’s presence at death of father
• Gratitude: Paralyzed grandson now able to feed himself
• Homebound member thankful for supportive friends
• One grateful for continued improvement following surgery
• Pray for a family member in deep depression
• A daughter who needs healing in her life
• Relief & healing for very ill member hospitalized
• Comfort for member whose brother died on Tuesday
• College student and family grieving death of grandfather
• Couple ask for prayers, tensions related to young son
• Continued watchcare for young mothers-to-be
• Healing for young family affected by addiction
• Recovery for cousin on ventilator 
• Courage and calm for one newly diagnosed with cancer
• Cherished daughter in rehab, for recovery from Covid
• Pray for ongoing progress of paralyzed grandson 
• Healing for member, torn tendons in foot and ankle
• Peace for best friend, aggressive cancer diagnosis

We thank you, O Redeemer, for the gift of your unfathomable love.  Grant that your loving power would sustain us as we work to re-order our lives in the days to come.  May we eschew the strong tugs of the world that lead to emptiness; but may embrace only those purposes which bring honor to you and to your Son, 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.