Weekly Lenten Prayer – March 29, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of March 29, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

O Love, how deep, how broad, how high!  Ah, Lord, we cannot fathom the love that willingly cloaked itself in human form and entered fully into mortal life, accepting all our frailties. Yet by your coming, you affirmed the value of every life; and by your suffering, you proclaimed that death is not the story’s end.  We trust in your redemption, knowing the lives lost in this brutal raging war are not lost forever. Instead, they press us to open our eyes to the hate and vengeance that thrive in our world.  And they have now joined in your eternal refrain that speaks to our world’s crucial need for love.  May we become still enough to listen to those voices, now in your keeping, and also take up their song of love for Christ’s sake. 

O Love, how deep, how broad, how high! We come to you with our individual interior worries: for those who are ill or unemployed; those who are lonely, facing grave danger or death; those who mourn; those who live in fear, confusion, discord, or danger. Especially we lift up those souls in sorrow who are known to us: . . . . . . . . . . We are aware, Lord, that our own behaviors often contribute to the pain in our lives and in the lives of others.  Such admissions make us uncomfortable, but hear us as we confess our hurtful and thoughtless ways . . . . . . . . . . . Show us, we pray, how to move toward the healing you offer.

O Love, how deep, how broad, how high!  When we were absorbed in other things in recent times, still you drew near, opening doors and setting things right. We reflect upon those days just passed, remembering your presence and mercy, particularly in . . . . . . . . . . For all the ways you enter our lives so silently and steadily, we are grateful.  And in the conviction that your holy power makes all things new, we offer these prayers of praise and mercy on behalf of our Church Street family: 

  • Thankful for prayers: a blood transplant completed & friend recovering 
  • Help appreciated: dispute with a neighbor successfully addressed
  • Thanksgiving for life & peaceful death of a treasured friend
  • Prayers appreciated: a member’s knee surgery successful 
  • Thankful for prayers: mother’s cancer scans were most promising 
  • Member grateful for healing from desert fever
  • Celebration of young son’s baptism on Sunday
  • Praises for a wonderful Day of Missions on Saturday
  • Four offer thanks for safe & rejuvenating spring vacations with families
  • Member grateful for help of Parish Health Team
  • Prayers answered: hospitalized member much improved
  • Member offers thanks for good care & thoughtful friends, now home from hospital
  • Gratitude: a member’s successful cataract surgery last week
  • Prayers that an indigent mother may pass her driving test on Thursday
  • Family & friends mourning death of cherished wife/mother
  • For God’s presence with a lonely woman in hospice care, that she has no pain and that grace surrounds her when death comes
  • Prayers for member in pain with foot injury, for guidance in treatment
  • Remember in prayer a member in fragile health & pain, for wisdom in making decisions
  • Family of cherished member whose funeral is Saturday, April 2 
  • Continued prayers for a mother recovering from a stroke
  • Restoration of relationships within a family 
  • A nephew continuing to grieve the death of his wife
  • Lift up grieving family – husband whose wife died at age 60 & their adult children
  • Healing for a young nephew with cancerous growth on vocal cord
  • Please pray for a pregnant cousin & safe delivery of her child 
  • For doors to open for a young professional
  • Mercy for suffering people of Ukraine – for an end to the violence
  • Prayers that a sister-in-law is able to carry her baby to term
  • Daughter seeks prayer for guidance in caring for her infirm mother 
  • Healing of a longtime friend, wisdom for her physicians
  • Sustaining three beloved women in cancer treatment
  • Thankful for prayers – friend with pneumonia now recovered

O Love, how deep, how broad, how high!  How you have honored us by planting in our hearts the deep desire to know you and to please you, a desire to be better people.  We admit our faith is not the full faith for which we aim, but in your grace, continue to guide us by your steady hand.  We would be yours, Lord, wholly and completely, vessels of love poured out for the healing of the world.  In the name of Jesus, Love Incarnate, we make our prayer:

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?

/by

Weekly Lenten Prayer – March 22, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of March 22, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

O God of the Watchful Eye, scripture says no sparrow falls without your notice, and in our amazement, we feel the depth of your concern for all in your earthly family. We sense your grace and glory embedded in the natural world around us, realizing all love begins and ends in you. May the seeds of concern you have scattered so profusely take root in our souls, that we might also learn how to love without condition or gain, but for the pure joy of emulating you.
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
Savior of Limitless Love, we embarked upon our Lenten journey, chronicling our flaws, determined to repent and choose a new route. By your grace, we have progressed; but we confess that we have often stumbled in our aims and have already broken our vows to you and to ourselves, particularly in . . . . . . . . . . Still, we ask that you erase our blunders, and watch over us now, as we sparrows pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and wing onward toward Jerusalem, where you wait in hope for our arrival.
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
There was once a time when we could claim we knew little of the afflictions of the world, but in our technological age, that time is no longer. The misery of the world is immense and is portrayed vividly. The pain of one is your pain and it is ours, O Lord. We, therefore, lift up all involved in the Ukrainian war, especially the innocents and the brave ones serving the injured, bereaved, and homeless; the ill in China who suffer from a new form of the Covid virus; for the victims of crimes here in our own country; for all your people in Eritrea, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan who are imprisoned because their faith or opinions differ from the powerful. Our efforts to rectify often seem so flimsy, yet we pray we might remain hearts who care amid the chaos.
Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.
As we believe you are the One Whose Concern Never Ceases, we ask that you also receive these expressions of gratitude and the pleas for support from your people at Church Street:
  • Thankful for prayers: a blood transplant was completed on Friday
  • Praises for visit with infant grandson in CA
  • Thankful for father with dementia – still a blessing to all
  • Thanksgiving for a job promotion for one of our young members
  • Gratitude and hope for the possibility of career advancement
  • Prayers appreciated: mother recovering from stroke, now at home
  • Gratitude for the love of a mother & for the gentle end to her earthly life
  • Celebrations for a colleague’s beautiful wedding on March 20
  • Grateful that two members were released from the hospital
  • Family thankful that an offer on new home was accepted
  • Member offers praise: no sign of cancer on recent scans
  • Lift up the family & friends mourning death of cherished wife/mother
  • Prayers that surgery for a member will not be required
  • Lift up a member having knee surgery on March 24
  • Mercy for suffering people of Ukraine – the displaced, the bereaved, the frightened, the wounded, and all in harm’s way
  • Prayers for a solution to dispute with neighbor
  • Wisdom for world leaders in ending destruction in Eastern Europe
  • Prayers for a mother to carry her baby to term
  • A member asks for prayer for her cataract surgery today
  • Prayers for a family whose daughter died of an overdose last week
  • Answers and healing for a mother undergoing GI tests this week
  • Prayers of healing for two families grieving the sudden losses of their children
  • Wisdom in dealing w/ widowed mother, depressed & confused
  • Comfort for member who lost his sister-in-law on March 18
  • Healing of a longtime friend, wisdom for her physicians
  • Hope for two young couples deeply desiring children
  • Sustaining two beloved women in cancer treatment
  • Cherished mother who is enduring harsh chemotherapy
  • Beloved brother recovering in the hospital from infection
  • Prayers for a position opening for young man
  • Courage, strength for mother having extensive cancer scans
By your mercy, O Empowering One, you have forged a road, you have led us to this very day, and you are guiding us home to your kingdom. May our gratitude be as deep as your love for your children who bow to offer this prayer of Jesus:

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?

/by

Weekly Lenten Prayer – March 15, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of March 15, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Searching God, we praise you for always seeking those who are stumbling by the wayside, knowing full well that, most often, we are the very ones who have misread the road signs pointing homeward.  Thank you for retracing your steps, for pushing your way through the brambles to find us and catch us before we perished among the briars. 

O Wounded One, because we have been lost and broken ourselves, you implant compassion within our bones, giving us the boldness to become advocates for the voiceless and the powerless, for the weary and heartbroken, for the suffering and the lost.  We recall those words you uttered so long ago, the ones that still play on in our hearts: “Those to whom much is given, much is required.” Grant that we might link arms more tightly with the poor and the underserved in our community, opening the same doors for them that, in your mercy, have been opened for us.

Shelter us beneath your wings these somber days, we pray, especially when our endurance grows thin and our knees become weak.  And there, in that safe haven, may our strength be replenished and our vision made keen. Then, we will never lose sight of the One who knows us, who loves us, who believes in us.  And assured of that love that never fails, we lift up these situations most recently expressed by those closest to us – members of our own church family:

  • Praises for prayers and God’s grace: Healthy grandson born March 11
  • Thanksgiving for faithful leadership of our Covid Task Force
  • Gratitude for courage that sustained a family during memorial gathering
  • Family appreciates prayers: Adult son healing from major heart surgery
  • Grateful for nations bound together to suppress evil at work in Ukraine
  • Three families offer thanks for safe and memorable vacations with children
  • Clergy thankful for all who assisted bereaved family during a funeral
  • Thanksgiving for an answered prayer at workplace
  • Mercy for suffering people of Ukraine – the displaced, the bereaved, the frightened, the wounded, and all in harm’s way
  • Wisdom for world leaders in ending destruction in Eastern Europe
  • Prayers that a sister may be strong enough to carry her baby to full term
  • Easing a mother’s anxiety as she faces death and her daughter/caregiver 
  • Continued prayers for healing for a hospitalized member
  • Healing for a longtime friend, wisdom for her physicians
  • Prayers for success a work team’s mission on March 18
  • Wisdom and integrity for leaders of our nation
  • Planting of hope for two young couples deeply desiring children
  • Continued prayers for families mourning the deaths of loved ones
  • Cherished mother who is enduring harsh chemotherapy
  • Pray for a dear friend whose long-term partner has abandoned him
  • Healing prayers for special cousin who is very ill with cancer
  • Prayers that ill friend will have a blood transplant on Friday
  • Beloved cousin in treatment for ovarian cancer 
  • A professional man asks for prayers this week
  • Prayers for successful job interview for young professional 
  • Hope for young friend with metastatic cancer

Our Way, Our Truth, and Our Life, receive these most earnest prayers, and also those unspoken ones we carry within our hearts, for we place our trust always in your unfailing love:

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?

/by

Weekly Lenten Prayer – March 8, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of March 8, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

O God of Lengthening Days, we have traveled our own ways for so long that we fear we might not find that singular trail that leads to your redemption. Call out to us once again, we pray, that we might catch sight of you across the way; then we shall move with haste to trace your steps. And on that road of penitence, we will not fail to notice the tracks of your own tears, for you indeed weep at our waywardness. And your tears surely fall more freely during this season, for your beautiful earth is split apart by terror and tribulation. Guide all those besieged by the evil powers of this world, and lift up the fallen through your holy love.  Only you, True God from True God, can bring hope out of hopelessness. 

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

We struggle to shape our lifestyle to yours, O River of Holiness, but you are gentle and merciful as we waver time and time again.  You pour your gifts of grace and mercy upon us even before we ask; still we whisper our most recent failings in these moments . . . . . . . . . . Wash us anew in your spring rains, reminding us that your baptismal mark is ever upon us.  Rinse away the discord and unease that live within us and around us, and receive these spoken prayers of your people at Church Street who wait for your cleansing touch:  

  • Gratitude: Husband with GI issues much improved
  • Celebrating formation of a new Sunday School Class
  • Thankful for prayers – Grandson’s emotional problems are eased 
  • Prayers appreciated – Daughter with shingles much improved
  • Gratitude for the work of the United Methodist Women
  • Thanksgiving that the Covid trend is turning downward
  • Mercy for suffering people of Ukraine – The displaced, the bereaved, the frightened, the wounded, and all in harm’s way
  • Easing of a mother’s anxiety as she faces death
  • Hope for a young couple deeply desiring children
  • For family tensions to dissipate during a memorial service this weekend
  • Family, friends, and coworkers of teacher (28) who died suddenly March 7                       
  • Pray for a dear friend whose long-term partner has abandoned him
  • Prayers for current Stephen Ministry Leaders and all in training
  • Pray for special cousin who is too ill to have his liver transplant
  • Courage for daughter and safe delivery of her first child March 11
  • Prayers that a plasma transplant will go forward in the coming week
  • Church family mourning the loss of two beloved members
  • Beloved cousin in treatment for ovarian cancer 
  • A young professional searching for a position in athletics  
  • Hope and healing for young friend with metastatic cancer
  • Prayers for young grandson at risk

You are the God of endless lovingkindness; therefore, we ask you would link  our prayers with the prayers of all around the globe who turn to you in hope:

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?

/by

Weekly Lenten Prayer – March 1, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of March 1, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Christ whose glory fills the skies, your mercies pierce the darkest morn and the most dreary night. As Jesus was transfigured on the mount, you transfigure everything you touch. Most Holy One, you remain our light upon the unknown path and shall keep us steady as we embark upon our own Lenten journey of inner transformation. And as we travel, help us unveil those secret sins we have hidden so long from view; may we discard them as worthless ashes along the way, especially these that weigh heaviest within us. . . . . . . . .  

Have you not planted seeds of hope and second chances within the most barren landscapes?  Just so, sharpen our inner eyes, we pray, that we might discover these sparks of wonder as we move forward, highlighting all that is worthy of revival.  All praises to you, for you are the Grace that breathes so quietly and steadily within the soil, far beneath the clamor of the world.

And believing you are that Radiant Friend who listens to the deepest sighs of our souls, and knowing you never leave us alone, we name all those things that tug upon our hearts this week:

  • Thanksgiving for Children’s Sunday and praise for our children and youth of our church and for their leaders
  • Grandparents celebrate recent visit with young granddaughter in Pennsylvania
  • Gratitude for prayers: Adult son recovering well from foot surgery
  • Members thankful for ministry of parish health team
  • Family overjoyed with recent birth of healthy son/grandson 
  • Friend offers gratitude for a smooth move and a house closing
  • Member celebrating first steps for reconciliation of relationship
  • Family grateful for safe travel to visit newborn grandson in California
  • Solace for friends and family of member who will be buried on Friday
  • Prayers for the people under siege in Ukraine, peace to prevail
  • Lift up all children trying to understand the horrors of war
  • Healing of daughter suffering from painful shingles
  • Prayers for cousin’s successful liver transplant March 8
  • Continued prayers for all ill with Covid
  • Healing prayers for bereaved family whose uncle died suddenly
  • Courage & calm for a young, anxious pregnant wife
  • All loved ones in assisted living situations their caregivers
  • Family grieving son’s sudden death; grace as they plan services
  • Prayers for healing: Member with severe anemia and GI problems
  • Guidance for family struggling to care for infirm adult sister
  • Direction & courage for friend divorcing, for his children
  • Beloved cousin in treatment for ovarian cancer
  • School counselors working with children grieving the sudden death of classmate
  • Prayers for wisdom in regard to a home purchase 
  • A young professional searching for a position in athletics  
  • Hope and healing for young friend with metastatic cancer
  • Prayers for an 8-year-old’s emotional healing  

As people dependent upon your transformative power, we ask that you remold us, even as we praise your name and offer our prayers and petitions in the name of Christ, the True and Only Light who taught us these words:

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?

/by

Weekly Prayer – February 23, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 23, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Scripture tells us your spark of divinity resides within each of us. And whatever  essence this spark is, we confess, such a notion of innate holiness unnerves us. Therefore, we have lacquered it over by our own illusions and self-interests.  We wear our masks of acceptability, hoping we will fit in with the culture. We scramble to acquire the newest baubles on the market, reach for the fleeting, and attend to the voices of promoters who promise lives of ease and tranquility.  Help us remove these barriers we have erected through the years that keep us from seeing ourselves as we really are, for we are children searching for the easy way.  Surely your prayers and ours are the same: That we might work, trusting in your mercy, to expunge each layer of falseness within us, till one day we stand before you as our unvarnished selves, with all are fallacies cast aside, with all our divine possibilities shining in brightness.

Hope of the World, hear our prayer.

A wise one once attested that “in the end, nature is enough.” How true it is that you speak to us, Holy One, through the language of the universe, in the dialect of love that is understood by every race and tribe.  The earth itself is your sacramental gift to humankind, and when we ignore it or mar it, it devalues your offering and pierces your heart.  Silence, we pray, all that muffles your daily call to your people throughout the world.  May we recognize your magnificence in the frame of the smallest leaf, in the glorious potential of the smallest seed, in the wind that calls forth the seasons.  Then may we bend the knee in homage to the One whose breath plants life wherever it passes and whose stillness is sufficient to saturate every soul.

Hope of the World, hear our prayer.

The present perils of the world weigh heavy upon us, O Lord. The thunder of tanks and vibrations of jets disclose the violence already at hand.  We pray for all the vulnerable ones in Eastern Europe whose lives and livelihoods are in jeopardy because of the menace of war.  May your word of peace ring out, we pray, to shatter the sword and quell the drug-related cruelty rampant in the Philippines, in Yemen, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico. We lift up those affected by the deadly mudslides in Brazil, and all in developing countries where Covid rates remain high. Stand beside those persecuted ones everywhere because of their ethnicity, gender, or social class. Behind our posturing and claims of self-sufficiency, we are a frail people, dependent upon one another and upon your enduring mercy.  Strengthen our resolve, Good Lord, for whatever lies ahead.

Hope of the World, hear our prayer.

May our prayers mingle with all those offered for the suffering in every place; and we add these concerns and thanksgivings that are offered by our friends, your beloved ones, at Church Street UMC: 

  • Gratitude for new church members, that they may find a place of joyful service among us
  • Grateful for prayers: Two arrived safely to new home in Texas
  • Appreciation for prayers: Father in hospice is having good days
  • Thanksgiving for the blessing of our music ministry
  • Offering thanks for Stephen Ministry and blessings of all now in training
  • Thanksgiving for safe and meaningful Confirmation Retreat
  • Member thankful for steady healing following spinal surgery
  • Family celebrates birth of healthy first grandson Feb 20 in Colorado
  • Gratitude for a dear friend’s 98th birthday last week
  • Member sends gratitude for prayers – vastly improved from Covid
  • Prayers for cousin’s successful liver transplant March 8
  • Continued prayers for all testing positive for Covid
  • Healing prayers for bereaved family whose uncle died suddenly and whose wife remains ill 
  • Courage and strength for young pregnant mother
  • Strengthening of a Sunday School Class
  • Courage, healing for adult son with diabetes, as he faces amputations
  • Prayers for healing clergy person suffering from congestive heart failure
  • Upholding family of young serviceman who died suddenly last week
  • Prayers for all members adjusting to residing in assisted living
  • Guidance for family struggling with caring for infirm sister
  • Direction and courage for friend divorcing
  • Beloved cousin in treatment for ovarian cancer
  • School counselors working with children grieving the sudden death of a young classmate
  • Continued prayers for two families – wives caring for ill husbands
  • Comfort for all church families grieving losses
  • Prayers for healing for one suffering severe eye damage
  • For an open door of opportunity for a young man’s work  
  • Hope and healing for young friend with metastatic cancer
  • Prayers for an 8-year-old’s emotional healing  
  • God’s healing presence with sister following massive stroke

Hope of the World, we believe you have accepted all our prayers that are offered in earnest, and ask that your holy presence would surround and sustain us throughout life’s journey; for we walk day by day with 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?

/by

Weekly Prayer – February 16, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 16, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Awaken us, we pray, to your Spirit-filled blessings that encircle the quiet earth. In our quest to “do” we forget you have called us to “be.” We confess we walk about with eyes closed to your splendors, but you display them for us anew every day: from the dew-crusted grass to the robin nibbling berries on a holly, from the faint rustle of the evergreen to the blue-white peaks in the distance, from the evening shadows across the lawn to the familiar face that welcomes us home. Deserving of so little, you place riches on our doorsteps. Open not only our eyes, but our souls as well, to your grace overflowing.

Lord of All, we thank you!

We praise you, Architect of Faith, for our church, and for all who have gone out from this place to serve you throughout the world through the decades. Week to week you call your willing workers from within our congregation to serve their fellow human beings in this community. We marvel at their tenacity and dedication as they go out to share food and clothing, to tend to the sick, to provide emotional support for school children, to welcome the stranger to the table, to advocate for just and equal opportunity for all. These followers teach us that your work is not finished, Lord, and that there are many ways in which each of us may use our personal gifts to carry your banner of hope.

Lord of All, we praise you!

God of Healing, here in your presence, we cannot ask for assistance for ourselves without offering praise for your divine work as we have wrestled with the Corona virus and its variants. It is you who pointed the way to healing, who emboldened professionals to serve despite the risks, who stood beside each grieving soul touched by this devastating illness. You have brought us this far, Firmest Friend, and you will never leave us comfortless.

Lord of All, we honor you!

In all humility, we now pray you would be mindful of the needs of those who are closest to our hearts: . . . . . . . . . . ; and also of those special circumstances of our brothers and sisters in Christ here at Church Street:

  • Praises for those who are being called to join our church on Sunday
  • Thankful for friend’s miraculous healing from Covid
  • Daughter grateful for father’s recent health improvement
  • Thankful: Member improves daily following surgery
  • Member grateful for prayers for her wedding
  • Thanksgiving: All in one assisted living are negative for Covid
  • Prayers for those who have tested positive for Covid; prayers for relief from frustrations of rearranging family routines
  • One grateful for support during a family bereavement
  • Mother thankful that daughter does not need surgery
  • Prayers for a good position for a young professional
  • Prayers for proper caregivers to be found for infirm sister
  • Prayers for young friend in hospice care & her grieving husband, their friends and family
  • Prayers for elementary students grieving the death of a classmate and for the educators who comfort them
  • Guidance for care of sister who suffered massive stroke
  • Prayers for daughter beginning proton therapy
  • Family friend with cancer, for a route to healing
  • Continued prayers for infirm uncle
  • For an open door to healing within a broken family
  • Comfort for families of church families in mourning
  • Son thankful for successful heart procedure for his father
  • Prayer for a co-worker who has many family responsibilities and has tested positive for Covid
  • Prayers for adult children who are moving and settling into new jobs.
  • For a daughter-in-law who died from Covid and for her husband who is also suffering.
  • For a niece whose husband died after a fall.
  • Prayers for those beginning Stephen Ministry training
  • Thankful that one who had suffered for so long is now in God’s Eternal Love and Light
  • For a father who is near death
  • Prayers for a friend struggling with divorce amidst a change in job location; prayers for the children
  • Prayers for a cousin undergoing complicated liver surgery
  • Prayers for a daughter undergoing IVF procedures and for the grandparents who are so hopeful
  • Prayers for a beloved wife and mother in hospital
  • Prayers for healing after serious eye injury and extensive surgery
  • Prayers for a long-time employment who has lung damage from Covid
  • Thankful for a mother who is going home after a long rehabilitation; prayers for continued strength

We offer this prayer and the prayers that remain unspoken in our hearts in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and hear us now as we pray the prayer he taught:

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?

/by

Weekly Prayer – February 9, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 9, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Tree of Life, thank you for rooting yourself within us. Though we may flirt with other codes and ideologies, chasing after hollow promises, seeking easier avenues of faith, we always return to you, our Holy Center. We honor you for your guidance that is unchanging, for your ancient promise that we have stood the test of time, for the saints whose lives have helped shape our own. Even here in the deep midwinter, we feel your divine energy surging through us. Hold us upright and steady, Lord, that we might resist the gusts of fear that drive us to doubt.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Forgive us, Empowering One, for our mulish ways. It is by your own strength embedded within us that we are able to accept the changes you offer; therefore, open the doors that have remained closed because of our stale routines and our old habits of eschewing the route to authentic growth. We confess we so often take the convenient path. Give us the wisdom to open your doorway of renewal, we pray, for you have graced us with spiritual gifts to carry out your dreams for your church and your people. Our passage may not be free of difficulties, but we remember that, though you are the same from age to age, you are also our Source who ever invites us into the fresh and new.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We remember, Holy One, that our names are written in the palm of your hand. What joy to know that the Lord of the Universe will never forget us! We are counted among the saints! Indeed, it is a mystery too deep to fathom, yet one which calls us to keep you at the center of our being. In the solitude of these moments, we pause to thank you for our very lives . . . . . . . . . .  Glory to the One who has plans and dreams for us, who calls us blessed, and who catches us when we fall!

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Heart of Hope, you know every thought of every soul; therefore we need not list all the details of our joys and our cares.  Still, we whisper our most private petitions today in the silence of our hearts: . . . . . . . . . . ; and also turn to you with these sentiments offered by our church family.  May your gentleness enfold us all:

  • Prayers appreciated: a husband’s cancer is in remission
  • Grateful for prayers: clear cancer scans following surgery
  • Thankful: today’s spinal surgery was successful
  • One grateful for support during a family bereavement
  • Gratitude for one in ICU, now recovering in regular room
  • Thanksgiving for temperate weather
  • Prayers for a good position for a young professional
  • Prayers for members mourning recent death of beloved mother/sister
  • God’s hand in finding proper care for a sister who suffered a major stroke
  • Healing work within a family: sudden death of mother, caretaker of infirm child
  • Prayers for young friend in hospice care & her grieving husband, their friends and family
  • Healing for member with Covid
  • Family bereft following the sudden death of 7-yr-old daughter
  • Prayers for daughter soon to begin proton therapy
  • Comfort for widower who recently moved to assisted living
  • Dear family friend with cancer, that a route to healing may be found
  • Two couples adjusting to Parkinson-related challenges
  • Beloved father in hospice care
  • Continued prayers for mother, long-term battle with cancer
  • Continued prayers: ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid
  • Comfort for families of 3 church families in mourning

May our prayers be acceptable in your sight, and may our lives proclaim the changeless love of our Living Lord.  In Christ’s name we make our prayer:

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?

/by

Weekly Prayer – February 2, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 2, 2022

Rev. Pat Clendenen

Loving and gracious God, in the quietness of these moments, speak to our hearts. We come to your house each week to offer our praise and thanksgiving with our words, our songs, our acts of commitment, and affirmations of faith.   We long to know you completely and fully; and yet, we live in a world that pulls us in so many directions, distracting us from our purpose as the Body of Christ. Even this day we remember all our fancy words and acts of service mean nothing if they are not infused and undergirded with love, the kind of love you revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Wise and loving God, you have woven your creation together, using your relationship with us and ours with each other to give rich, intricate, and diverse patterns to all of life. We give thanks that you have created us for community, calling us into relationship with one another.  Forgive us for our internal conflict, and for our inability at times to see beyond ourselves. Teach us to love one another, even when we disagree, and to pour our energy into seeking understanding so that we may work toward the good of all your creation. 

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Lord, you call caregivers to serve, and you give gifts to make their service possible. We thank you today for the willing and gifted hands and hearts in our Stephen Ministry. Thank you for our Stephen Leaders, who gladly serve to keep our Stephen Ministry flourishing. Thank you for our Stephen Ministers, who faithfully meet with their care receivers, extending the care of Christ to those who need it most. Thank you also for the support of our pastors and staff, and for all those who keep this ministry growing in our congregation. 

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

And because you have blessed our community here at Church Street, we who depend upon your love, mercy, and grace bring to you these prayers offered by our brothers and sisters in Christ: 

  • Celebrating successful February 2nd surgery
  • Gratitude for prayers: A transplant donor has been found
  • Appreciation for all church volunteers
  • Member grateful for negative cancer scan
  • Thanksgiving for all who are being called to join our church
  • Gratitude: all who have generously pledged for 2022 church ministries
  • Prayers for wife and mother recovering from February 2 surgery
  • Healing for one in ICU, Covid complications
  • One asks for prayers for her Sunday School class
  • Prayers for recovery: Church families affected by Covid
  • Comfort for widower who recently moved to assisted living
  • Dear family friend with cancer, that a route to healing may be found
  • Two couples who are adjusting to health challenges at home 
  • Continued prayers for two members in cancer treatment
  • Strength and comfort for family: Cousin died of a stroke last week
  • Continued prayers: Ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid 
  • Comfort for families of three church members who died last week
  • God’s presence with an uncle who is aging and infirm
  • Courage for brother in military who may be deployed to Ukraine

We are truly blessed as a congregation to have a multi-layered system of care, making it possible to serve the needs of all people. We give you thanks for the vision and wisdom of those who breathed life into each of these ministries – Congregational Care, Parish Health Team, and Benevolence Team – and for all who continue to make these ministries a vital part of our mission. May we never become complacent, thinking there is no need to expand our understandings of your longings for your creation. Surprise us with new visions, and give us the courage to follow the path you set before us, trusting that Christ is alive and goes before us to show and share what love can do.  

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Remind us, O God, that, as we move in the world, though scattered, we remain the Church, the Body of Christ in action. Let us be workers together with you, performing deeds of mercy and kindness, and giving evidence of Christ’s love in all that we do, for it is in his name that we offer our prayer…….

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?

/by

Weekly Prayer – January 26, 2022

,

Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of January 26, 2022

Rev. Catherine Nance

Loving and gracious God – we come today in praise and thanksgiving for you – the creator all good things. We remember that when you spoke the earth into being, you declared it good. As we stand on your earth and look up to the heavens and peer over vast waters and dig in the earth may we join in the chorus of, “It is good!” O God forgive us when we treat creation – your creation – as something disposable for our use. We confess we forget you called us to be stewards and not simply users of water, air, land, and space. Stir up in us a new commitment to work together to care about creation as an extension of our own bodies.      

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

O God who knit us together in our mother’s wombs, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Forgive us when we turn to advertisers and celebrities for images of what we should look like. Forgive us when we are ashamed of our bodies; instead, may we take care of ourselves and know that you desire good health for all people. Give us a new vocabulary of wholeness and beauty; forgive us when we describe ourselves or others solely in terms of how we look or how we do not measure up. May we see each other’s bodies as sacred gifts and honor one another with respect, for you have created us in your image. May we see your grace in each other.  

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

We thank you for the gift of your church and all the different ways the body of Church Street expresses itself. In each church there are members working together to proclaim your reconciling word and do your reconciling word; therefore we pray for all churches in our city and for all United Methodist churches, that our hearts may remain in communion with all, that that our voices might truly be pleasing to you as one song.   

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

God of All Creation, we feel you moving within us and around us, opening doors, tending us in our woundedness, and binding us together in love. In that spirit of togetherness, we lay before you the most recent celebrations and concerns of our community of faith.  As you wish the best for us, we leave all in your caring hands:

  • Thanksgiving for prayers: Infant in ICU now breathing on his own
  • Thankful for prayers: Safe travel to & from Houston & promising medical test results
  • Gratitude: Cousin in Florida overcoming severe Covid complications
  • Father grateful for prayers: has found a wonderful caregiver
  • Grateful daughter in rehab center is improving
  • Thanksgiving for meaningful weekend retreat for our Youth
  • Husband feeling prayer support during his divorce
  • Prayers answered: A house has sold
  • Gratitude: a father is much-improved following long Covid struggle
  • Thankful that meds are helping a member with memory loss
  • Prayers appreciated for a friend who died peacefully this week 
  • Gratitude for Church Street clergy who work with joyful professionalism
  • Prayers for a wife, mother, and community volunteer, for her safe & successful surgery on February 2
  • Healing for all church members suffering with Covid
  • Wisdom and guidance for one unsure of the future
  • Healing prayers for sons whose father died last weekend
  • Young woman in need of a transplant, for a donor to be found
  • Guidance for wife whose husband has memory loss 
  • Continued prayers for two members in cancer treatment
  • Prayers for cousin on life support following a stroke
  • Comfort and direction for all in mourning
  • Continued prayers: Ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid 
  • Comfort for family of church member who died today
  • God’s work within family – three youngsters whose father died recently

We offer this prayer in a spirit of unity – acknowledging that we all have differences that you call good, and that your love draws us into one spirit and one purpose. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ whose life, death, and resurrection makes us one and 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?

/by