Evening Prayer – March 11

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 11, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Evening Host, settle us down as the night air drifts in and the warm moon high above is captured in a blue mist. Night’s reverie is ours once again, and we turn our thoughts to our blessings of this day just past . . . . . . . . . . Your presence seemed to float before us, opening doors and windows when we were hemmed in by challenges. Forgive us when we fail to remember that even the breaths we take come as your gift to us. Truly, if we were to list all your favors in the journals of our hearts, the pages and margins could not contain such manifold entries.

O Gatherer of the Beloved Community, you have been faithful in tending us through this past year of travail; and now, in just a few days, we will once again be able to worship with our brothers and sisters in our own church building!  Having experienced all our seclusion and loneliness, our fears and losses, our anxieties and bereavements, we shall not return to your sanctuary as the same people we were before. We have been deeply humbled by this stealthy virus, but also by the ways you have brought about renewal. Let us sing praises to our God of Goodness whose silent work can never be squelched by illness, suffering, travesty, or even death!

Words fail us, as ever, but we offer gratitude that we are part of that great pilgrimage traveling to your heavenly home. The road is often steep and the crossroads confusing, yet you lend encouragement when we think of turning back. In your mercy, receive these specific prayers offered by your Church Street sojourners, and all our unspoken ones we carry with us:

  • Couple celebrates new baby arriving in July
  • Gratitude: Heart catheterization revealed no blockages
  • Cancer survivor is encouraged by church’s prayers
  • Members thankful for church’s educational offerings
  • Gratitude: Hospitalized sister is much improved
  • Healing: Young sister with ongoing cancer concerns
  • Comfort for family: Cherished mother in hospice care
  • Healing for colleague following risky surgery
  • Prayers that heart catheterization Friday goes well
  • Patience for one awaiting medical treatment
  • Prayers that new meds improve breathing issues
  • Safe delivery of first grandchild
  • Patience and healing for one recovering from surgery
  • Healing for grandson with lymphoma
  • Elderly mother in hospice care at home
  • Prayers for adult son to conquer his addiction
  • Recovery for youngster with head injury
  • Diagnosis for 6-year-old niece having seizures

Grant us, O Lord, and all whom we cherish, a peaceful rest under the panoply of stars. And as we sleep, silently engrave the name of Jesus upon our hearts, that all our thoughts and deeds may become extensions of the love of your Son, who taught us to pray with 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.

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Evening Prayer – March 10

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 9, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

God of our Hearts, we awoke to your glory in the morning light, thankful for the promise of another day, teeming with opportunities to honor you.  And in some ways, we were faithful to our Christian calling in our encounters; but now in reflection at day’s end, we admit our blunders, especially . . . . . . . . . Even in these embarrassing instances, our hearts may have been in the right frame, but our egos caused us to lose control.  Forgive us, we pray, for listening too closely to that strident voice of arrogance that has made its home inside our heads.  Erase our indiscretions from your memory, Lord, as you always do.  And when tomorrow comes, may our hearts, swept clean by your Spirit, rule the day.

Maybe our arrogance is a cover-up for our feelings of insignificance.  Compared to notables around us, whose wisdom and works influence major policy shifts and restore hope and health around the globe, our own efforts sometimes seem so paltry.  The world is assuredly not beating on our doors seeking advice.  Instead, we labor as everyday folks – the grocer, the teacher, the loan officer, the trash collector, the homemaker, the salesclerk, the retiree. Center our minds, we pray, not on our station or influence in life, but on the One who took ordinary wine and bread.  And lifting them up with his blessing, these gifts were rendered transformative and sufficient to sustain the soul of every believer.  So let us be about the tasks we have set for ourselves: taking a meal to a neighbor, making a phone call when illness strikes, quilting a baby blanket, volunteering at the food bank, visiting the homebound, waiting with the dying.  We serve the God who takes ordinary gifts and counts them as sacred offerings for the kingdom.

Indeed, another sacred offering is the privilege of praying for one another, whether in joy or sorrow; therefore, we share with you, Caring One, these situations which hold prominent places in the hearts of your Church Street family:

  • Prayers appreciated: Tests show a tumor is shrinking
  • Grateful for prayers: A biopsy shows no sign of cancer
  • Thankful that a missing friend has been located and is safe
  • Member thankful for bereavement support
  • Two with heart ailments are on the road to healing
  • Gratitude for support of Stephen Ministers
  • Young wife is thankful her cancer is in early stage
  • Prayers for two undergoing heart procedures on Friday
  • Professional seeks a good job opening
  • Cherished mother in hospice care at home
  • Safe delivery of a grandchild next week
  • All who are in mourning
  • Healing for grandson with lymphoma
  • Family grieving death of mother/grandmother
  • Elderly mother entering hospice care
  • Beloved sister weakened by disease, hospitalized
  • Guidance and courage for family of addictive son
  • Ill member awaiting treatment plan
  • Recovery for youngster with head injury
  • Diagnosis for 6-year-old niece having seizures
  • Comfort for husband: MS and breathing issues

We leave our prayers with you, Tender Friend, knowing you want the best for us. Tuck us in with your hands of love, and we will take our rest under your quilt of grace. Whatever the new morn brings, we will face it with you, always remembering to pray as we were taught even as children:

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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Evening Prayer – March 9

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 9, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

For no one For no one can lay any foundation

other than what has been laid down.

That foundation is Jesus Christ.

(I Corinthians 3:11)

God of Wonder, we look upward in the ebbing day to perhaps glimpse the shadow of your face, and you do not fail us!  You are there – high above in the cool wind that playfully shifts the evening clouds, peeping out behind the violet mist just below the mountaintop, in the glowing steadiness of Orion and the North Star. Ever-Changing, but always the same, Constant Being, your majesty is revealed to us only in brief moments of our day, but these fleeting fragments are enough to steep our souls in wonder.

Yet even in our wonder, when we turn our eyes to the state of our world and the crushing burdens many must carry, we confess our belief sometimes withers. Those old doubts begin to gnaw at the weak places in the foundation of our faith. Fill in those gaps, we pray, with the tenets that upheld the saints and martyrs of long ago, who suffered even unto death. Tightly cement the fissures with the unwavering trust we had as children. Make our foundation strong and sturdy again, Sustaining One, that it would withstand any adversity the world throws at us, and would bear the weight of all the burdens we are privileged to carry on behalf of the weak and overwhelmed.

As we endeavor to draw closer to you this Lenten Season, you meet us half-way, ever holding out to us the promise of renewal. You know our emptiness, our loneliness, and the personal detours that block our passage, so steady us once again, we pray, to confront our private concerns . . . . . . . . . . ; and we also seek guidance for your Church Street family, who have earnestly asked to be remembered:

  • Gratitude: Family whose newborn died feel supported by our prayers
  • Lonely member offers thanks for a new friendship
  • Family celebrates baby boy born last night
  • Couple offer thanksgiving for new home
  • Family grateful for a new grandson in Ohio
  • Celebration of in-person worship on Sunday
  • Gratitude for prayers: Biopsies were negative
  • One thankful for successful surgery on Monday
  • Upholding young wife with Stage 2 breast cancer
  • Cherished mother in hospice care at home
  • Upholding family grieving death of mother/grandmother
  • Prayers for elderly mother hospitalized and her daughters
  • Healing for two recovering from risky surgery
  • Beloved sister weakened by disease, hospitalized
  • Guidance and courage for family of addictive son
  • Stamina for husband continuing cancer treatments
  • Courage for 5 year old with head injury and family as they care for him
  • Diagnosis for 6-year-old niece having seizures
  • Comfort for husband: MS and breathing issues
  • Two mourning the end of important relationships
  • Member awaiting PET scan and treatment plan

Elusive One, we take our rest this night, still wrapped in the wonder of life itself and of the love that will never let us go. May your mercy lie with us, and all whom we cherish, that even in our dreams we will not wander beyond your reach.

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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Evening Prayer – March 8

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 8, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

We lift our evening song to you, Creator of the Day and the Night. The voice of spring is thick in the air and you are busy planting seeds of hope and joy. You are providing all the elements that could bring reality all that you envision for us.  Give us the prudence to treasure these lengthening days you are bringing, to use them to ponder our relationship with you, to travel that extra mile to meet you afresh as Easter approaches. On that blessed day may we be found worthy to dance in the light of your grace.

It remains a holy mystery that your Son chose to share our lives, opting to reside among us in the everydayness of our existence, to suffer rejection and brokenness that we might become whole. Such outpouring we may never fully understand, yet we remember Jesus’ humility and service, and long to be counted among those who carry his legacy of selfless love. So much of the time we fail in our commitment, but we hold onto the certainty that you have planted seeds of compassion deep within us; and you use even our the tiniest of sprouts to help heal our hurting world.

Aware of your mercy and in awe of your grace, we kneel in gratitude for all the ways you continue to bless us, Gracious One, especially in these particular ways . . . . . . . . . . and also offer these prayers from the hearts of your people of Church Street:

  • Thankful for prayers: Chemo treatments going well
  • Thanksgiving: Colleague’s whipple surgery was successful
  • Grateful for prayers: Sister-in-law’s cancer prognosis is promising
  • Gratitude: Young mother home from the hospital
  • Prayers appreciated: Delicate cancer surgery was successful
  • Six offer thanks for church’s help in securing vaccine
  • Comfort for family who lost a loved one to COVID last week
  • Continued prayers for two recovering from risky surgery
  • Beloved mother with declining mental capacity
  • Easing anxiety of new mother-to-be
  • Stamina for husband continuing cancer treatments
  • Courage for 5 year old with head injury and family as they care for him
  • Prayers for two friends awaiting biopsy reports
  • Healing for 6-year-old niece having seizures
  • Comfort and healing for husband with breathing problems
  • Sister struggling with memory problems
  • Two mourning the end of important relationships
  • Member awaiting PET scan and news of treatment
  • Cherished mother in hospice care

Make a place for us, and all whom we love, this night in your haven of rest, where you cradle all who are worn and weary. We leave our cares in your hands, Tender Keeper, assured that your touch will bring wholeness in time to come.

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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Evening Prayer – March 4

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 4, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

What gift can we bring: What present or token?

What words can convey it- the joy of this day?

When grateful we come, remembering rejoicing,

What song can we offer in in honor and praise?

(Hymn by Jane Marshall)

In these hours past you spoke not a word, but the day was saturated with your sacred presence. Holy silence sang through tiny buds on nubby branches and happy tufts of green grass, washed clean by recent showers, sunned themselves on the lawn.  Both the delicate blossoms of Lenten roses and the stems of the old yew fluttered when you passed by.  Even now crystal stars are clustering above, a sparkling choir to sing your serenade of rest.  In this ordinary day, you have come to us in extraordinary ways.  Indeed, what song can we offer in honor in praise?

We remain humbled by the endless ways you express your love for us and offer our gratitude for these personal ways you have appeared to us this day . . . . . . . . . . Yet despite your presence and guidance, we feel the sting of the instances when we let you down . . . . . . . . . Sprinkle us with fresh water from your stream of forgiveness, we pray, and remind us that tomorrow is another day, teeming with opportunities to honorably serve the Author of all our Days.

And now, Caring One, we place in your compassionate care these ones whom you love, as they render to you their own thanksgivings and their personal struggles.

Give each a sense of your grace and presence as they face their individual challenges:

  • Gratitude: Two visits with homebound friends
  • Prayers appreciated: A job has opened up
  • Three grateful for church help in securing vaccine
  • Thanksgiving for last week’s successful surgery
  • Young mother released from hospital
  • Prayers for member having delicate surgery Friday and wisdom for his surgeons
  • Healing friend with Covid, on ventilator
  • Easing anxiety of new mother-to-be
  • Colleague recovering from difficult surgery
  • Upholding one with lymphoma
  • Prayers for friend awaiting biopsy report
  • Member with stomach ailment, awaiting pathology report
  • Recovery for friend in ICU with multiple injuries
  • Friend with pancreatic cancer and his caregiver wife
  • Sister struggling with memory problems
  • One grieving the end of a relationship
  • Comfort for one enduring radiation treatment
  • Mother with increasing memory deterioration

Give thanks for tomorrow full of surprises,

For knowing whatever tomorrow may bring,

The Word is our promise always forever.

We rest in God’s keeping and live in God’s love. 

Guardian of our Sleep, grant us a peaceful night, and look with kindness upon all whom we love, for we place our trust in you, Our Keeper, and your Blessed Son who invited 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.

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Evening Prayer – March 3

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 3, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away

through my groaning all day long. . . .   

My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not hide;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;

and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

(Psalm 32:3-5)

Loving Parent, the poet spoke of the need to see ourselves as others see us. But more than that, we long to know how you, Holy One, see us.  As we reflect in evening shadows, we admit we sometimes think too highly of ourselves and act accordingly – lording it over others, pretending we have the solution to every situation. On the other hand, at times we feel we are inept, inadequate, completely unaware of any personal gifts worthy of notice. Surely in your eyes neither of these states is accurate.  Forgive us for both our grandiosity and our wallowing in self-pity. Grant us, Lord, a glimpse of your own perception of us, that we might acknowledge our sin and open ourselves more widely to the Spirit’s working in us and through us.

Enduring Truth, whatever is true in us causes us to see a world that is so in need of healing.  Your love is omniscient, but there are places where your love is invisible.  We know that whole populations are being killed, scattered and enslaved, while few take notice.  Greed has seeped into our relationships with other nations and we step on the backs of the poor to satisfy our personal desires.  Thank you for those who have taken on the brave beauty of your holy work, who tear down the wall between the haves and the have-nots, who labor for those who dream of life outside the ghettos.  May we ever see with the eyes of truth, and pray you would give courage to our convictions, that we might also use our individual gifts to join those who travel your road of justice.  Our steps may be small and sometimes wobbly, but you will show us how to run and not be weary, how to walk and not faint.

By you great mercy, bind our hearts, Lord, with all those who are hurting everywhere.  Freedom is meant to be shared, so let us spend the time you give us to break the bonds that shackle troubled souls. Receive these prayers of thanksgiving for the personal ways you have upheld us . . . . . . . . . . and accept these praises and pleas that are offered by the people of Church Street:

  • Gratitude for prayers: Back pain is easing
  • Thanks for encouraging news regarding financial help
  • Prayers appreciated: Ill member now eligible for vaccine
  • 2 couples thankful for church help obtaining vaccine
  • Thankful: severe headaches have improved
  • Thanksgiving for educators at every level who labor despite the challenges
  • One gives thanks for clear cancer scan
  • Thankful for the Christian witness of longtime cancer sufferer
  • Pray for dear friend in ICU, multiple injuries from car crash
  • Upholding an exhausted caregiver
  • Prayers for one having Whipple surgery Thursday and his surgeons
  • Member having delicate cancer surgery on Friday
  • Easing anxiety of new mother-to-be
  • New mother with high blood pressure
  • Upholding one with lymphoma
  • Friend with pancreatic cancer and his caregiver wife
  • Colleague on ventilator with Covid
  • Mother struggling with family finances
  • One grieving the end of a relationship
  • Comfort for one enduring radiation treatment

We make a pallet beside your own bed this night, Lord, knowing that your deep peace will carry us safely upon the sea of merciful sleep. We will arise with joyful hearts, ready to meet you on the other side of daybreak to continue our service 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.

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Evening Prayer – March 2

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 2, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Everybody’s talking at me; I can’t hear a word they’re saying,

only the echoes of my mind.

People stopping staring, I can’t see their faces,

only the shadows of their eyes…

(Harry Nilsson)

There was confusion in our day today, as in most days; many shrewd and shrill voices competed for our attention. Only you, O Lord, can bring order out commotion and clarity out of our confusion. Settle us down this evening you have bequeathed us, as we enter your certainty and find our rest in you. Realign the ear of our hearts that we might attend to your words alone.  Reconfigure our dreams, that we would desire nothing apart from your will.

O Master of Life, we promised to bow before no ruler but you, yet we now confess that we have sought applause from those who do not know your name. We even tolerate companions who dismiss you altogether. We have once again slipped into the lure of earthly acclaim, attending to voices promising happiness, but leading to insignificance. We wonder how many, in searching for Jesus, witnessed our own worldly example and sadly turned away.  Loving God, forgive the ways in which we have dishonored you. Here in silence and meekness, let us wait for that one true voice in the crowd, the voice of our Savior who knows our sins and bids us start anew . . . . . . . . . .

We tend to think of the Lenten Season as solely a spartan existence in the wilderness, much as Jesus’ own desert sojourn.  And as we search the refuse within our own souls, we find it can be a melancholy trek.  But we thank you, Sacred Friend, that in your gentle mercy, you have surprised us with a flood of gifts along the way:  a multitude of gorgeous days and warm temperatures, resolutions to throbbing challenges, a curing vaccine you helped create, restoration and healing for friends and family, new babies born, and the opportunity for in-person worship. By your sustaining largesse, we are humbled, and also remember these personal favors you have presented in recent days . . . . . . . . . . . .

Knowing your mercy is not reserved for a few, but touches every life, we bring you these thanksgivings and also the needs expressed by members of your Church Street family:

  • Gratitude for prayers: Couple with Covid celebrate recovery
  • Prayers appreciated: Monday surgery went smoothly
  • Ill member grateful for a day without pain
  • Five offer thanks for recent vaccinations
  • Gratitude: One has received a caregiver
  • Pray for dear friend in car crash, paralysis is feared
  • An adult son suffering from addictions
  • Easing anxiety of new mother-to-be
  • Upholding one facing treatment for lymphoma
  • Longtime friend with pancreatic cancer & his wife who is caregiver
  • Prayers: Colleague on ventilator with Covid
  • Upholding family mourning a loved one
  • Prayers for one having cancer surgery March 5
  • Easing of side effects from radiation treatment
  • Colleague facing whipple surgery March 4
  • One mourning the end of 2-year relationship
  • Prayers for one bearing side effects of chemo
  • Two members recovering from recent surgeries
  • Healing for hospitalized mother

Keeper of the Night, we close our day with calmer hearts and take our rest in thanksgiving for your renewing love. And in the dark hours, should you have a word for us, may our hearts be open enough to bid you welcome, saying, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

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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Evening Prayer – March 1

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

March 1, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O Fountain of Life, the sky above is gunmetal gray, matching the grayness of our outlook.  But in evening’s sinking light, we can still make out the gnarled bark of the barren trees glistening in the falling rain.  Like giant sponges they drink in every drop pouring down.  In their ancient wisdom they seem to understand they will need all the sustenance you send for drier days to come.  You know there will be barren times in the days ahead when our faith will tend to wither, so shower your prudence upon our thirsty souls, too, Lord, that we may also drink fully of what you have to teach us this season. Drench us, we pray, that by springtime, we will have become as strong and as resilient as the luminous oaks.

A wise one once taught that our days are what we make of them.  Forgiving One, we confess that we allow mere trivialities shape our attitudes.  We all have days when the car won’t start, when the roof springs a leak, when the dog has to be rushed to the vet, when the computer is sluggish.  Help us rise above these everyday nuisances as we bring to mind those impoverished ones who must walk the streets of despair each and every day:  the disabled mentally and physically, the grief-stricken and the lonely, the voiceless and the powerless whom no one notices.  Help us set aside those petty irritants that color our days and use our energy to pray for and to serve those whom the world has forgotten. Even Jesus’ own words remind us how close the downtrodden are to your own heart: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.”

All praise to you, God of Goodness, for the way you paint our path with renewal.  Our gratitude for this interval of Lent, these days of introspection that give us space to shift our priorities, to realign our attitudes, to become closer to our Master.  The Christian life always asks something of us, an in return we have the honor of serving our Ever-Renewing Savior.

As we close out this day you have granted us, our spirits are lifted by the particular mercies you have imparted, especially . . . . . . . . . . Certain of your sheltering ways, we now commit to your continued care each of these petitions offered by our Church Street family:

  • Family celebrates the birth of healthy baby boy
  • Prayers appreciated: Covid sufferer is improved
  • One grateful for healing prayers – now back at work
  • Family thankful for support during bereavement
  • Gratitude: An injury is healing
  • Healing of a broken relationship
  • Prayers for a clear pathology report
  • Upholding one facing treatment for lymphoma
  • Friend of 50 years with pancreatic cancer & his wife who is caregiver
  • Prayers: Colleague on ventilator with Covid
  • Upholding family whose wife/sister died on Saturday
  • Prayers for one having cancer surgery March 5
  • Two seeking promising work
  • Colleague facing whipple surgery March 4
  • Healing for mother recovering from stroke
  • Solace for parents in loss of a newborn
  • One mourning the end of a 2-year relationship
  • Family grieving a young person’s suicide
  • Two members in cancer treatment
  • Healing for member recovering from knee surgery
  • Easing of anxiety for young mother in final weeks of pregnancy

May we welcome the darkness that covers us and listen as your mercy falls as gently as the rain upon us. Wrap us, and all whom we love, in your protection and grant us a peaceful night. And should dreams unfold in the hours of rest, may they reveal the deep love of the Caring Christ, who taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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Evening Prayer – February 25

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 25, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O Changeless One, it seems strange that you are also the Author of Change, but as evening glides in on its dark expansive wings, we ponder what particular changes you may be asking us to consider this season. Should we stay the course? Are you standing at a crossroads pointing to new possibilities? Should we take that bend in the lane that leads to unexplored landscapes? Naturally you would never presume to make the choice for us, so great is your respect for our free will, so grant us your wisdom in discernment and your courage if and when we take those first tentative steps. And even if we choose wrongly, you will use the road we take to your good purpose.

You know, Dear Friend, that we are frequently victims of our own narrow thinking and choose the more convenient route.  Forgive our shuffling gait, Lord, and help us shake off our sins of lethargy as the dust from our shoes.  Sensitize us to others whose opportunities are much more restricted than ours: those who are confined by joblessness, poverty, language barriers, emotional and physical infirmities. Their prison walls are simply too steep for them to scale. Is there not a wide passage that leads to those held captive? If so, point the way, and our Lenten pilgrimage may become a quest to break down the barriers stifling the lives of the dispossessed. May our compassion increase, turning into prayers with hands and feet.

Thank you for guiding us in our desire to become stronger disciples. And for the instances this day when we did set aside our own agenda to help another, we offer them to your glory working through us. Keep watch over all your flock at Church Street, and each these friends who offer their heartfelt gratitude to you and their prayers for help and healing:

  • Thanksgiving: Ill family members are improving
  • Gratitude: Friend with two surgeries now well enough to return home
  • Family celebrates upcoming move to new home
  • Grateful for prayers: Knee surgery was successful
  • Happiness has returned in depressed mother’s life
  • Adult children seeking quality care for ill mother
  • Friends and family supporting a dying father
  • Thankful for all community leaders working for solutions to the gun violence
  • Upholding one facing treatment for lymphoma
  • Healing for colleague on ventilator with Covid
  • All who are grappling with recovery from deadly winter storms
  • Safe environments for our children and youth
  • Prayers for one awaiting cancer surgery
  • Courage for family grieving loss of a newborn
  • Good job openings for two members
  • Family and friends grieving a young person’s suicide
  • Strength for two members in cancer treatment
  • Healing for member recovering from knee surgery
  • Easing of anxiety for young mother in final weeks of pregnancy
  • Family members in North Carolina, suffering with Covid
  • Relief for one enduring painful headaches

As we take our rest, O Vast and Blessed One, give us deeper insight into the ways we might fulfill your holy purpose. And as we sleep, give a peaceful night to all our friends and family, enfolding all who seek to serve you in the name of Christ, who taught us to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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Evening Prayer – February 24

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 24, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

We can just make out the remnants of this pristine day through the last of the mottled clouds on the skyline. We thank you that you do not keep winter’s beauty to yourself, but share it so freely with us. Forever Friend, all our moments belong to you and you call us away from our day of entanglements to sit with you in the sundown hours. What better way to end this day of gifts than to share our gratitude with the One who cherishes our friendship?  We shall take it and file it in our treasure chest of memories.

We confess, oh Lord, that we listen too closely to the seductive tunes of power and possession that the world plays. During this season of re-centering, touch our ears that we may hear the songs of our Savior. We confess there was a biting edge in our remarks today; touch our lips that we might speak only gentle words. We confess that we hold onto our bitterness and hurt; touch our hands that we might release the dead past. And once healed, may our gift to you be the service we render our sisters and brothers whose hopes and dreams you have asked us to carry. Receive now, we pray, the joys in the hearts of your people, as well as their innermost concerns:

  • Thanksgiving: A father-in-law’s leukemia is in remission
  • Members thankful for upcoming birth of first grandchild
  • Family celebrates first visit in months to isolated relative in senior living
  • Two express thanks for Zoom Bible Studies
  • Six members offer gratitude for church’s help in securing virus vaccine
  • Upholding one facing treatment for lymphoma
  • Watch care: Young mother in last weeks of pregnancy
  • Prayers for all children who are behind academically
  • Healing for one with head injury
  • Good job openings for two members
  • Strength for two members in continued cancer treatment
  • Member having knee surgery tomorrow
  • All working to address gun violence in our city
  • Family members in North Carolina, suffering with Covid
  • Healing for young husband with Covid
  • Healing mercies for one with painful headaches
  • Continued healing: Mother recovering from a stroke
  • Family requests prayers: Father nearing death
  • Adult children, seeking quality care for elderly mother

O One Who Neither Slumbers Nor Sleeps, may your warm stars burn away those misgivings we are harboring and give us a restful sleep. Attend to all who are dear to us, and hold all your children in the strong arms 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.

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