Weekly Prayer – June 2

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:

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.

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Weekly Prayer – May 26

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 23, 2021

Written by Rev. Catherine Clark Nance

O Holy Spirit of God – we thank you for Pentecost, and in this season, we are privileged to claim and celebrate the birth of your church. But we know your Spirit has been calling us into community from the beginning. Your Spirit, your breath, breathed life into all of creation; and has been made known in the voice of the prophets, calling our communities to exhibit justice and righteousness and compassion.

Your Spirit is revealed to us in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, who welcomed the stranger and told us to love one another. We see the power of your Spirit on Easter morning and as Jesus ascended into heaven. When, O God, have we ever been away from your Spirit? The psalmist declares that you are always present.

Poets and songwriters and mystics and preachers have named you in countless ways: Liberating Spirit, Comforter, Wind and Flame, Spirit of Peace, Sacred Breath, Laughter, Mysterious Dancer, Pure Fountain, Holy Wisdom.

You have given us the gift of language to make sense of our world and to communicate and to draw your people together. Forgive us when our language attempts to contrive or constrain you. Forgive us when we name you in only the way that is comfortable and convenient for us. Forgive us when our language divides and alienates.

It is our prayer, Refining Fire of God, that we would open our ears and hear how you are prompting and leading and restoring us. And as we recall the story of Pentecost and the disciples understanding other languages, we are mindful of all the languages you hear as you listen to your world praying. We know that your Holy Spirit connects us to Palestinian and Israeli families who are grieving; families in Afghanistan are not just foreigners or people far away, but your Spirit enables us to hear the sorrow of parents and to pray for their comfort. Your Reconciling Spirit opens our hearts to all – in any country – who are dying from Covid.

Abiding Spirit, as you remain close to each of your suffering and frightened children, and as you know each one by name, draw near to your friends in the Church Street community who also call upon you in these trying times.  Speak each name, we pray, as you send forth your swirls of healing into their midst:

  • Husband in fifth month of Covid struggles
  • Four church families grieving deaths of loved ones this week
  • Anxious brother awaiting pathology report
  • Relief for one plagued by hip ailment
  • Peace for husband in hospice care
  • Comfort & healing for two in lymphoma treatment
  • Calm and peace for a mother facing extensive surgery
  • Beloved brother suffering from cancer
  • Dear friend recovering from back surgery
  • Continued healing of husband with rare cancer
  • Delivery of two from the pain of depression
  • A cure for two struggling with serious anemia
  • Ongoing healing for two recovering from knee surgery
  • Steady healing of shoulder injury
  • Continued good health for a cherished pet

And to these petitions we add our praises for your mercy and grace:

  • One who expresses renewed joy in living
  • Couple celebrating a new pregnancy
  • Husband thankful for a new job
  • Gratitude: friend recovers from ruptured appendix
  • Grateful for prayers: pregnant cousin is recovering from Covid and her unborn child remains healthy
  • Thankful for baptism of infant son on Sunday
  • Young couple celebrate their recent engagement
  • Gratitude: no cancer found following father’s lung surgery
  • Four families grateful for recent days of vacation
  • Declining numbers of new Covid cases in our area
  • One in PT regaining strength after leg injury
  • Astonishing work of our UMW & mission teams
  • Member thankful for improvement of cancer scans

Continue to open our ears, Spirit of Truth, that we might hear how you desire to shape us, rather than our words shaping how we allow you to fit into our hearts. May your wind and fire cause us to hear you and experience you in new ways. And now we join with other Christians all around the world who offer the prayer our Savior taught us:

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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – May 19

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 16, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Let us sing a glad song of gratitude to our God who has given us life and has imbued us with power to change the world.  How amazing is that grace!  The Holy One believes in us!  We now bow in the silence and reflect upon the ways we have felt his sacred movement in our lives in recent times . . . . . . . . . . Take us by the hand each day of this week, Lord, and lead us in those paths you have prepared for us; and may we recognize your empowering Spirit along the way.

Gracious God, receive our prayer.

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” sang the psalmist.  We do come in your name this evening, Our Forever Companion, knowing you see us as we are, and that we are cherished in your sight.  We remember the gentleness with which you steered us through this past year’s turmoil and dissension. In our doubts, fears, and grief, you were working silently to restore our hope.

Gracious God, receive our prayer.

Yes, we are indeed richly blessed and we praise the God from whom all blessings flow.  Receive now, we pray, these specific expressions of gratitude brought by your people at Church Street; and also shine your light of gentle grace upon those who render their deep personal concerns:

Joys

  • Family celebrates new grandbaby, born May 14
  • Thanksgiving for visit with first grandchild
  • Grateful for prayers: heart procedure successful
  • One celebrating success of risky back surgery
  • Thankful for more in-person church gatherings
  • Prayers appreciated: member released from hospital
  • Member offers thanks for her steady recovery from a stroke
  • Gratitude: multiple mission projects completed on Sat
  • A friend’s successful knee replacement on the 17th

Concerns

  • Healing for young pregnant cousin very ill with Covid
  • Relief for one suffering great hip & leg pain
  • Group seeking earnest discernment
  • Calm and peace for one facing extensive surgery
  • Beloved brother suffering from cancer
  • Healing of friend in CO in rehab center
  • Recovery for extremely ill husband in hospital
  • Continued healing for husband in rehab facility
  • Vaccine availability for India overwhelmed by virus
  • Sustaining dear grandson in treatment for lymphoma
  • Continued improvement: husband with rare cancer
  • That two in deep depression may be delivered from their pain
  • Healing for grieving families & pained members of the Austin-East community who seek change
  • Healing for member with lymphoma
  • Sustaining grace for member struggling with anemia
  • Grace & comfort for husband in hospice care at home
  • Continued recovery for one in therapy for injured leg
  • Prayers that shoulder injury will not require surgery
  • Easing of painful knee injury

Gracious God, receive our prayer.

We confess, Patient One, that the magnet of our daily affairs has pulled us away from our best intentions.  Especially our weakness was most pronounced in these instances which we remember with regret: . . . . . . . . . . Buttress us, that we might withstand the tug of the world and remain steady in our purpose to live out the promises we make in Christ’s name.

And as you feed us your food of compassion each and every day, you are showing us how to open our hands to share healing with those whose lives are broken, to offer hope to the desperate, to deliver companionship to the lonely, to proclaim your good news. All these efforts we dedicate to you in Christ’s name, our Teacher and Example 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.

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Weekly Prayer – May 12

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 9, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

You are our Risen Lord, and in these days of Eastertide we reflect upon your glorious Ascension.  As you were taken up unto the heavens, your followers were confused; and we in our era confess that we overlook the significance of your extraordinary ascent. We cherish our memory of those days when you walked the dusty byways with your friends, teaching them along the way, close enough to comfort and support. These reflections remind us that you are present with us in the ordinariness of our days. But your mission was not solely for that one devoted community of ages past, nor for our own community today. Your return to the Father solidified your holy union forever, declaring your omnipresence throughout the universe. As the world has seen and known you, so have all seen and known the Father. Thanks be to God!

Lord in your mercy, receive our humble prayer.

O God of Mystery, we picture Christ rising among luminous clouds, his arms outstretched, demonstrating that his love permeates all the world.  And that which Christ loves, we are called to embrace. Such a command demands our all, Lord, for how near impossible it is to pray for those who wish us harm, to show grace and forgiveness to those enemy nations who seek our downfall.  You have laid down a standard, Lord, that none but the most trusting can follow.  Strengthen our own trust, we pray, that we might also practice your radical, forgiving love.

Lord in your mercy, receive our humble prayer.

O Friend of All, we are mindful of our own human weakness, and we lean upon your mercy and grace to encourage all who are broken in mind, body, or spirit. The psalmist tells us that “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Help us remember that all that harms us will eventually turn to ashes and that one day you will set things right. Initiate that new beginning for those who call out in your name, particularly those who are in deep mourning, those suffering in places where the Covid death toll rises, those who have lost their homes through disaster or violence, those whose memory has deserted them; and also touch each of these Church Street friends who bring before you their own needs and their thanksgivings:

Joys

  • Back pain is decreasing following recent surgery
  • Mother in assisted living most happy with arrangement
  • Thanksgiving for our valiant high school seniors
  • Appreciation for home help for challenged son
  • Prayers appreciated: cousin’s triple heart by-pass successful
  • Grateful that brother with Covid released from hospital
  • Gratitude: member’s knee surgery went smoothly
  • One with cancer celebrates a week of renewed energy
  • Prayers upheld brother-in-law during his successful May 7 surgery

Concerns

  • Prayers for member having heart procedure May 12
  • Adult son grieving death of his mother in New Delhi
  • Vaccine availability for people of India overwhelmed by virus
  • Continued prayers for husband recovering from rare cancer
  • That two in deep depression may be delivered from their pain
  • Prayers for Hispanic friend with multiple needs
  • Healing for families who have lost beloved family members due to gun violence in the Austin-East community
  • Healing for member recovering from back surgery
  • Grace & comfort for husband in hospice care at home
  • Prayers for loved ones living in throes of dementia
  • Continued recovery for one in therapy for injured leg
  • Prayers that shoulder injury will not require surgery
  • Full Covid recovery for single mother of two

God of our Salvation, we feel you working through your Risen and Ascended Son, showering us with new courage and endurance to face the challenges that have entered our lives. Thanksgiving fills our souls when we remember that we are held fast and forever in your grasp, and we now offer that prayer that has sustained us throughout the ages:

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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – May 5

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of May 2, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

You ask us, Lord, to abide in you, and we have pledged to do so. Yours is such an open and gracious invitation, but in our narcissistic society, our hearts are easily tempted to take shelter in unhealthy places, spending hours in ways that do not nourish our spirits. Forgive us, we pray, for focusing on the transient, for settling for second-best, when we could be daily enriched by your goodness. Call us home again, Dear Friend. Brush off the doormat that bids us welcome, and we will enter your abode where we shall be fed with trust and kindness. Make us resolute in soul, we pray, that we might never wander again.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Source of Sustenance, in our roving, we confess the seeds you have planted in us have returned a meager harvest; but we thank you that you haven’t given up on us. As the Master Gardener, take those dormant kernels, long neglected and dissipated, tend them with your patient hand, and provide an environment of prosperity. We would yield savory and abundant crops for the kingdom in the season of life which we are given. May grace and peace and mercy and forgiveness be the fruits we bear, and may we share them generously in your Name.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Vine of True Life, this week spring rains have poured forth torrents of your life-giving waters, assuring us of your constant care for all creation. As you replenish and sustain your good earth, replenish us with a spirit of thanksgiving, for our wells are full to overflowing with gifts from your benevolent hand. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, may Jesus Christ be praised!
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We are indebted to you, O Divine One, for sending us the Holy Spirit to help us in our yearning, for we truly do not know how to pray. We remain mystified by the suffering and pain that thrive throughout our planet and we long to be part of its healing. Send your soothing Spirit to our brothers and sisters in every region who are oppressed, misunderstood, lonely, hungry, and forgotten; and as each soul is dear to you, receive these particular petitions and thanksgivings offered by your followers at Church Street:
Joys
  • One appreciates completion of another round of chemo
  • Gratitude: Knee replacement surgery successful
  • Member recovering well from heart surgery
  • Member celebrates birth of twins: grand-niece & grand-nephew
  • Encouraging news of dear friend healing from Covid
  • Member celebrates a new living arrangement
  • Back surgery is bringing healing for member
  • Family thankful for church support during a bereavement
  • Gratitude: mother with leukemia much improved
  • Thankful: sister has been discharged from rehab facility
Concerns
  • Cousin recovering from triple by-pass surgery
  • Healing for mother & brother in New Delhi struggling with Covid
  • Relief for the people of India suffering from virus
  • Lift up member, new resident in assisted living
  • Cherished husband, healing of leg injury
  • Healing prayers: one undergoing knee surgery May 6
  • Encouragement for one in deep depression
  • Continued relief for one suffering from asthma
  • For brother-in-law’s successful heart surgery May 7
  • Steady healing for member with fractured femur
  • Patience & healing of painful shoulder injury
  • Comfort & safe travels for bereaved member
  • Full Covid recovery for single mother of two
  • Cherished aging father in assisted living
  • New hope for a husband who is discouraged
  • Healing for two afflicted with lymphoma
As ones aware of our weakness, yet trusting that you are our strength; as those harboring questions, yet knowing that you hold all answers, we lift up all our prayers to you in the name of Jesus, 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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – April 28

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of April 25, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Lord of Change, you show us the sacred in everything, even in the simple occurrences in our lives. As you are turning over the season, we feel the warmth of the spring sun, behold the fresh buds and green sprigs, and hear the early birdsong and chattering squirrels. Turn our souls over, too, we pray, that we might unearth the long buried pure intentions once rooted in our hearts. Direct us toward ways in which we might let the old fall away — the old ideas, the obsolete models, and our resistance to change. Transformation often comes with pain, but you, O God of New Beginnings, will instill us with courage to take our first wobbly steps down that rough road of renewal. Hear us, Lord, as we especially seek your transformation in these personal areas: . . . . . . . . . .
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Good Shepherd, we, like sheep, are often myopic, wandering from one situation to another, frightened and disoriented, battered by grievous news of widespread illness and disaster, by blatant acts of violence and destruction, by racial misunderstandings and divisions, by knowledge of innocents who are undeserving of pain and death. Sometimes the weight of the world becomes too much for us to bear and our hearts remain broken. We recall the psalmist who knew you as the Good Shepherd; he never promised that all our pain and woes would cease. Rather, he assured us that you would comfort us with your rod and your staff. Comfort, O comfort your people, Lord, for we are worn and weary. Bring your sheep into your fold once again, that we might learn your gentle ways and follow you to pastures of healing.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

O Keeper, you are often looking out for us, even when we so carelessly graze in dangerous pastures. We pray we do not stray too far from the voice that calls out to us across the way. We know your voice, just as you know ours, so shelter us from all that threatens. And so, with confident hearts, we lay before you these prayers on behalf of our church family:

Joys
-Gratitude: member recovering steadily from surgery
-Blessing of Sunday’s confirmations and baptisms
-Thanksgiving: local availability of virus vaccines
-Appreciation for faithfulness of our Stephen Ministers
-One thankful that cancer meds seem to be working
-Gratitude that heart cath procedure went smoothly
-All who work to help solve violence in our neighborhood

Concerns
-Comfort for family mourning death of cherished husband
-Easing of back pain for one who suffers greatly
-Mother & brother in New Delhi afflicted with Covid
-Steady healing for member with fractured femur
-Patience & healing of painful shoulder injury
-Beloved niece in Iowa recovering from cancer surgery; & guidance for family members & medical personnel supporting her
-Prayers that mentor may recover from Covid
-Covid relief for all suffering in India
-Smooth transition for family moving to another state next week
-Healing touch of God for one in depression
-Easing of anger & tension between neighbors
-All mourning death of brother last Saturday
-God’s strength & courage for two struggling young women
-Healing for two afflicted with lymphoma

We thank you for putting in our hearts a desire to know you more fully, a desire to be more closely bonded to your Son, and a desire to be a better people. Watch over us this week, we may follow the lead of our great Shepherd of the Sheep, 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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – April 21

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of April 18, 2021

Written by Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

O Song of the Resurrection, each day and each night you play your bold melody of hope. Such a welcome hymn is difficult to hear, however, when the world seems to be spiraling downward. Newscasts sing of travesties of war in too many places, of random killings of innocents, distrust of public servants and officials, the pervasive penchant for categorizing and condemning those who hold differing opinions, and the ugly disrespect of our own form of government. Let us not address injustice with acts of raging destruction, but with a clarion call for equality. Let us continue to lift our voices in your resurrection song, affirming that love alone conquers evil. And with our Lord’s help, we shall overcome!
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The epistle writer advised us to: “Cast all your cares upon him, for he cares for you;” therefore, we need not hesitate to bring our concerns into your presence. As we move through the struggles of our lives, let us cling to the conviction that we are not alone. Hear now our pleas for our personal trials . . . . . . . . . . Give us patience, Holy One, for we do sense the movement of your Spirit within our world, bringing hope where there is dread, boldness where there is timidity, and resilience when we faint.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Your goodness, O Lord, washes over us as the cool spring rain. Grant that we might never take for granted the daily gifts you send our way, especially these particular favors we have received most recently . . . . . . . . . . And though undeserving, we exist in your reservoir of grace, knowing you stand ready to accept all these earnest petitions we now offer on behalf of your people of the Church Street community:

Joys:
-Gratitude: member healing well following eye surgery
-Prayers appreciated: friend healing following Whipple surgery
-Member celebrating a move to a new home
-Gratitude: 6-yr old with seizures has received a promising medical report
-Adult son’s living situation has improved
-Attentive family members caring for father in hospice
-One thankful for second Covid vaccination
-Thanksgiving for in-person youth gatherings
-Family grateful for church support during bereavement
-All in our community working for justice and an end to violence

Concerns:
-Healing of husband’s pneumonia & shoulder fractures
-Recovering for colleague recovering from dangerous wound
-Steady healing for member with fractured femur
-Healing of painful tear in shoulder muscle
-Family grieving loss of troubled son
-Comfort for a grieving stepfather
-Friends & family of wife who died at home Tuesday
-Easing of anger & tension between neighbors
-Recovery for single mother, hospitalized with Covid
-Member mourning death of cherished sister
-Two families grappling with major issues
-Beloved father – newly diagnosed lung cancer
-Guidance for family caring for ill brother
-Continued prayers for two afflicted with lymphoma
-Proper diagnosis of long-term illness
-Healing prayers for one recovering from prostate surgery

O Friend Most Patient, forgive the times we have held back, when we have been too reticent to become involved. Give us courage, we pray, to take an active part in addressing grave issues in our own community, in our own era. Let us reach for your hand, which links us with hurting souls next door and around the world; and in true solidarity we shall pray together the words taught us by our Redeemer:

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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayers of the Church Street Family – April 14

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of April 11, 2021

Written by Rev. Catherine Nance

O God of the Living Christ, we thank you for the opportunity to worship together. Each Sunday, some gather in the same room, sitting on the same pew; others worship on YouTube and internet. We think of Christians meeting for worship across this city and all around the world – different styles of worship. People we will never meet. People we cannot see – and yet you see us. You see our hearts, our desire to worship you – our desire to know you more fully and dearly. You see our living and our striving to be faithful disciples. Thank you for loving us and receiving us.

We are humbled in this Easter season that you call each of us into a new creation; thank you for allowing us to share in the beauty of your world. The colors of spring around us and the hints of new life reflect your joy in creation. Forgive us when we abuse your earth that you have called us to care for. Make us mindful of the animals, the plants, the water, the air – all life-giving – all connected to the other. Forgive us when we make ourselves lord over creation instead of you.

O God, we are grateful for a nurturing church community that allows us to ask questions, to wonder and to ponder. We think particularly of our Confirmation Class who met on Sunday, nearing the end of their journey but yet at the start of a new one! We are grateful for fellow disciples; those who are new to faith and bring a freshness and exuberance with their inquiries. We are grateful for those long-time disciples who bring a wisdom and patience but who still yearn to know you more deeply. May our words of faith always match our living. When people see us, O God, may they see the reflection of your love and grace.

And as a community of faith, bound together through the immensity of your love and grace, we lift up to you both our praises and our concerns this day. We are a blessed people, aware of our reliance upon your steady guidance, so receive these offerings we voice in this hour:

Joys:

-Two couples celebrate new pregnancies
-One celebrates unanticipated financial assistance
-Thanksgiving: latest scans showed no new cancer
-Grateful for church’s confirmation & youth programs
-Two tolerating lymphoma treatments well
-Gratitude for prayers: knee therapy completed
-Thankful for prayers: back surgery went smoothly
-Prayers appreciated: prostate surgery successful

Concerns:

-Patience for husband in assisted living
-Healing for member recovering from back surgery
-Continued healing for one having infusions
-Healing of painful tear in shoulder muscle
-Upholding all working for solutions to gun violence
-God’s presence with a member grieving untimely death of stepson
-Beloved father – newly diagnosed lung cancer
-Guidance & strength for one caring for an ill brother
-Ongoing prayers for one enduring cancer treatments
-Solace for family mourning sudden death of beloved sister
-Member seeks relief from a painful leg ailment
-Strength for husband whose wife may enter palliative care
-Courage & strength for friend with intestinal cancer
-Young coach at Emory desperately ill with sepsis & his 3-year-old son diagnosed with leukemia
-Continued healing & for restoration of vision
-Improvement for one suffering from anemia

Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts, that we may seek the good of others and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace. We offer now the words that Christ 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.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayers of the Church Street Family – April 8

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of April 4, 2021

Written by Rev. Tim Best

Lord Jesus, you who defeated the power of death and overcame the cold darkness of the tomb, free us from our bondage to the powers of death. Just as your disciples discovered the clothes which bound you, folded and empty, empower us by your spirit to overcome the powers that seek to bind us and all creation.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Let us discover anew this day the power of resurrection. Create in us a new heart, a resurrected heart. Where the world sees defeat, let us pray for hope and trust in your faithfulness. Strengthen us that we might be a community that proclaims newness of life.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
In the midst of our Easter celebrations, we pray for a world that has suffered at the hands of a deadly disease. We pray for those who suffer, are alone, or are in any kind of trouble. Transform our hearts that we may respond with the love of Christ to the needs of our neighbors.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for our community, for Knoxville, for Tennessee, and for the United States, and for the world; guide all those who lead and make decisions that our human communities might more fully reflect your kingdom.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Remove from us the graveclothes that have bound us to hate, suspicion, prejudice, and violence. Fill us with your zeal for a just and peaceful world that we might proclaim new life by word and deed.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray that we might be renewed by your promise to raise us from the dead, just as you were raised. We pray for those who have died and ask that you would give us the confidence to trust in your resurrection power each day, that we would live and love boldly as your disciples.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
And though we can never fully understand that Love that was nailed to a tree and laid in the tomb, we know in our hearts that it reflects the depth of your concern for your children; so we bring to you our earnest prayers – both our glad thanksgivings and our challenges:
Joys
  • Thanksgiving for a new grandson
  • Gratitude: cancer victim is returning to work
  • Daughter thankful for support during father’s death
  • One thankful for financial support for ill husband
  • Outpouring of support during Lent for BOH
  • Gratitude for in-person worship
  • Thankful husband recovering in rehab facility
  • Prayers appreciated: friend with pneumonia is improving
  • Multiple members express gratitude for church’s worship team
  • Three offer thanks to church for vaccination help
Concerns
  • Pray for a mother who is making poor decisions
  • Recovery for member – serious back surgery
  • Peace & healing – member facing prostate surgery
  • Healing for husband with shoulder injury
  • Ongoing prayers for one enduring cancer treatments
  • A husband who needs encouragement
  • For a miracle to heal a painful leg ailment
  • Healing for two with lymphoma
  • Courage & strength for friend with intestinal cancer
  • Continued prayers for healing after eye surgery
  • Continued healing for two alcoholic sons
Train our hearts that when we, like Mary, hear your voice, we would recognize it and obey. In obedience to you, Christ Jesus, we join our prayer to that prayer which you taught us:
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.

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O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

Daily Lent Devotions from Church Street UMC

Friday, April 1, Morning

By Mrs. Laura White, March 17, 1978

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

“O Sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,

Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown;

How pale thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!

How does that visage languish which once was bright as morn!

What thou, My Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain:

Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain;

Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve thy place;

Look on me with thy favor, vouchsafe to me thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest Friend,

For this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?

O make me thine forever, and should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.”

UMC Hymnal #286

One of the most beloved of all the Lenten hymns is “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” The language of the hymn is intensely personal, as each believer is invited to consider the suffering of Christ for mankind’s salvation. The pictorial details of the first stanza are very graphic, almost as if the viewing of a picture of Christ on the cross prompted the poet’s words. He sadly views the grieving figure and notices the crown of thorns, the pale countenance, and the mournful expression. In the second stanza the speaker addresses this dying Christ with the realization that the pain suffered by his Savior was patiently endured even though the transgression and sin belonged to another. The third stanza turns to a note of thanksgiving and dedication, as the poet purposes his own life and love to be directed to this One whose life was freely given that man might have an access to God each day and a hope of life with Him forever.

Prayer

O God, in this Lenten Season, may we also “see” our suffering Savior. May we realize that His victory over suffering has made it possible for us to experience His resurrection power in our lives today. As we receive greater insight into His suffering, may we see our sin and His provisions for salvation in the Cross.

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