Evening Prayer – February 11

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 11, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

As the sun disappears behind the heavy clouds, our prayers of thanksgiving rise to you, Loving God. Looking heavenward, our hearts teem with abundant gratitude for even the smallest things which, in our haste, we may have taken for granted:  the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, sufficient food in the pantry, the meal lovingly prepared, the word of honest appreciation directed our way, camaraderie of co-workers, the pet who adores our companionship, friends who know our flaws but love us still, the face of a smiling child, a shimmering earth washed by cleansing showers. Your ever-flowing grace revives our trust in you.

O Faithful One, some far-off wind seems to call us home to you at eventide. Even in our extended virus struggles, we have found that you are breathing in us and for us.

And in your wisdom and mercy you have brought about the medications that are addressing the deadly virus that has stalked the earth these many months.  Always a step ahead, you are planning even better days for your people. Grant that the lessons we have learned this past year will stir us to work within your plan, ever in the pattern of Jesus.

Forgive us through your mercy for whatever wrongs we have done this day, particularly these that still sting in our memories  . . . . . . . . Strengthen our souls and our will through the night hours, we pray, that tomorrow we will be more intentional in our service to you. O Wounded One, heal us. O Enlightened One, transfigure us. O Refining One, sweep through us — for Christ’s sake.

We place our current gratitudes and struggles into your outstretched hand, particularly . . . . . . . . . . .  and also these offered by our brothers and sisters at Church Street:

  • Thanksgiving: A beautiful new baby
  • Couple eagerly await a new birth
  • Ten thankful for church assistance in obtaining virus vaccinations
  • Grateful for a more favorable oncology report than expected
  • Member burying her cherished father tomorrow
  • Couple grappling with sad news
  • God’s help for one in need of solid job
  • Courage for one facing cancer regimen
  • For medications to improve a friend’s depression
  • Frail friend with pneumonia
  • Prayers for friend, weak and confused
  • Healing for two in cancer treatment
  • Beloved mother recovering at home
  • Continued prayers for healing of heart ailment
  • Close friend given six months to live
  • Healing grandson with lymphoma
  • For a friendship to blossom
  • All who mourn recent deaths of loved ones
  • Family struggling with son’s addition and PTSD

O Watch in the Night, as your eye is on even the sparrow, we know you will keep us and all whom we love in your gaze through the dark hours. Accept all these, our earnest pleas, for we lay them at your throne of grace in the name of your Risen Son, whose resurrection song still plays in our hearts:

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 10

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 10, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

As you have etched your signature in holy shades of light and dark across the sky above us, you have engraved your name upon every living part of your creation. Even as you answer to many names, we know you as the One Who Is, the One who will stand with us till time is no more. We praise you that your autograph glows in the stately stretch of the heavens this eventide — a silent signal that you linger close. If we failed to acknowledge you or caused you pain in these hours past, please forgive us. We pray you would never erase that treasured mark of ownership we are honored to wear.

Heart of Truth, the newscasters twist their sirens to their most alarming levels, keeping us anxiously poised for the next catastrophe.  It is all we can do to keep from being swept up in despair. Help us instead to tune in to those voices that share stories of your goodness: the sick are being healed, the wounded are being delivered, medications are being distributed, the hungry are being fed, neighbors are helping neighbors, isolated ones are not forgotten, your work is being done.

How comforting to know that your humble disciples still walk the earth, bearing the truth of your benevolence.  Thanks be to God!

O Bringer of New Life, even in the bleakness of winter, you invite us to believe in what can still be. Give us courage to move forward, even when we are tired and stressed, when we are restless and confused, even when our challenges seem insurmountable. Receive our private concerns, we pray, that we may know your wisdom, especially in . . . . . . . . . . And as it is your good pleasure to receive our prayers, we offer these on behalf of our Church Street family:

  • Seven offer gratitude for virus vaccinations
  • Thankful for prayers: A mother’s health is improving
  • Gratitude: One’s depression is lifting
  • Couple grateful for a vacation
  • Member thankful to be released from hospital
  • Prayers for a good job opening in the area
  • Upholding a family saddened by recent news
  • Courage for one with newly diagnosed cancer
  • Frail friend with pneumonia
  • Close friend given six months to live
  • One desires guidance in beginning a friendship
  • Upholding two members in cancer treatment
  • Comfort for family: Death of father
  • Healing: Husband in deep depression
  • Strength for family coping with son’s grave emotional problems
  • Member recovering from major illness
  • Friend suffering physically and emotionally
  • Continued healing for heart patient
  • Grandson with lymphoma

As we rest tonight, Lord, enlarge our hearts that we might love more deeply and serve with greater intensity in the new day to come. And as we sleep, we place ourselves, all whom we love, and all who bear your love to others into your keeping, for you Lord, only make us dwell in safety.

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 9

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 9, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Your evening sky, Creator of Rest, becomes the color of silt and we anticipate the silent grandeur with which you close each of our days. As we gaze at your soft glory, let us enter the closet of prayer and commune with you in that place of quiet where words are unnecessary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There is the beautiful aspect of widening darkness makes all things appear equal: There is no one more lofty or wise than the other, both mansion and hut are sheathed in raven, overgrown fields appear as lovely as manicured lawns, all skin tones blend into the color of earth. Only in the shadowed hours do we let down our guard long enough to see with the leveling eyes of God.

With morning’s light, however, inequities again will starkly reveal themselves; so give us new energy to take up the cause of the disordered, the poor, the hungry and misunderstood, the ill and the disenfranchised. Give us the will to respect all of your blessed creation, tending it with the love of the Father.

O One Who Beckons, thank you for calling us to be part of your labor for justice and mercy. We join our hands with all believers everywhere who know you as the Source of all Goodness and who pray without ceasing for your will to be made manifest in all our lives. Receive now both the praises and the struggles lifted from the Church Street family:

  • Homebound members thankful for church contacts
  • Young couple celebrate the birth of a new daughter
  • Praises for all who are helping with virus vaccinations
  • Gratitude: Souper Bowl donations for the hungry exceeded expectations
  • Thanksgiving for end of lengthy recovery from back surgery
  • Prayers for a good job opening in the city
  • Upholding a family saddened by new challenges
  • Courage for one with newly diagnosed cancer
  • Close friend given only six months of life
  • Upholding member in cancer treatment
  • Comfort for daughter and family in the death of father
  • Healing: Husband in deep depression
  • Strength for family coping with son’s grave emotional problems
  • Pray for mother recovering from brain bleed
  • Friend suffering physically and emotionally
  • All who are grappling with grief
  • Continued healing for heart patient

O One Who Dreams With Us, may we take in your bracing night air as we rest upon your cool sheets of peace. Refresh us with sleep tonight for the work that tomorrow holds. Shelter all whom we cherish, we pray, and all your beloved who long for the nearness of Christ:

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 8

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 8, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O Evening Host, you call us with slashes of orange light seeping through the darkening horizon; your invitation beckons us home again into the enfolding freedom from our daily routine. Here in this calm closing, you offer breathing space to remember how you have carried us through the hours and how you are opening windows and doors to free us from our tensions. May we enter these moments in quiet reflection . . . . . . . . . . For your gift of this day of living under your glorious sun, we bow in gratitude.

Fortress of Forgiveness, we are a rushed people, and in our haste, our words have punctured suggestions made in earnest and ideas that showed promise. Our unkindness and lack of grace blindsided even those closest to us. For the ways in which we have failed you, our sisters and brothers, and ourselves, we ask for holy pardon, especially for . . . . . . . . . . . .  We also pray you would show us how to pardon those who have caused us pain, particularly . . . . . . . . . .  Perhaps if we picture your candle of grace shining above each one who has hurt us, we would see that their own struggles are no different than our own.

As you work through us to further your own purposes, we ask that you would infuse our national leaders with you new vision, granting that the groundwork they lay will support a system where all have ample opportunity to thrive in this good land you have given us. Discipline us to pray daily for our leaders at every level, as we also pray for our fellow pilgrims across the world, for ourselves, and for each of these Church Street friends whose situations are already known to you:

  • Gratitude for the life and witness of a cherished colleague
  • Ten offer gratitude for virus vaccinations
  • Thanksgiving for minimal side effects of chemo
  • Family grateful that father’s illness has stabilized
  • Many express thanks for communion worship
  • Gratitude: Family of four healed from Covid
  • Thanksgiving for vaccinations for family members in UK and Missouri
  • Thankful for answered prayers of wider vaccine distribution
  • Courage for one with newly diagnosed cancer
  • Dear sister depressed from isolation
  • Prayers for two in treatment for pancreatic cancer
  • Comfort for family, husband killed in accident
  • Healing: Husband in deep depression
  • Healing for one suffering leg pain
  • Pray for mother recovering from brain bleed
  • Discernment for one making weighty decision
  • Strength for friend very ill physically and emotionally
  • Families mourning recent deaths of loved ones
  • Continued healing for heart patient
  • Healing for one whose cancer has spread

We conclude our prayers, Holy One, looking forward to your healing touch of sleep. Watch over all who are closest to our hearts, we pray, and with the dawn, may we place our steps in the footprints of Jesus as we walk his road to heaven:

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 4

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 4, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Waiting One, we come humbly before you as the shadows grow deeper, for we have struggled today and confess our thoughts and deeds have been less than our best; and here in the quiet hours, we feel the sting of our misdeeds, particularly . . . . . . . . . . Our regrets are more than we would like them to be; but we know you will not turn away from us, as you always stand ready to offer your gift of pardon when we sincerely repent.  Embrace us with your forgiveness, we pray, and with your help, tomorrow may be a different story altogether.

You feed us the bread of mercy, Sustaining One, and offer us the cup of grace. And for all the mercies that have found us today, hear our prayers of thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . For many of our brothers & sisters, pain has cut a wide swath, so comfort the grieving, heal the hurting, fill all who are empty, and sustain those too weak to form any words. And for those who have forgotten you, open their ears that they may hear your voice calling them home. We are all wanderers and we know we cannot make this journey alone. May your love be our companion as we travel toward your grace of eternity.

Again and again, Great Healer, you remove the thorns of our losses and cover our wounds with your balm of hope.  Receive these most recent expressions of gratitude for your work among us; and accept these prayers for holy assistance from your children at Church Street:

  • Grateful for prayers: member has obtained funding to begin her chemo treatments
  • Eight express thanks for virus vaccinations
  • Couple healing from Covid: Grateful for prayers
  • Member grateful for promising medical report
  • Thanksgiving: Mother ill at home is improving
  • Prayers for two in treatment for pancreatic cancer
  • Healing: Husband in deep depression
  • Sons mourning the death of their mother
  • Patience for one healing from surgery
  • Prayers for improvement in stroke victim
  • Continued healing for heart patient
  • Comfort for family: Husband killed in auto accident last week
  • Healing for one whose cancer has spread
  • One enduring chemo treatments
  • Healing painful leg condition

Good Keeper, we are never out of your sight by daylight, and you make your pallet beside our bed each night.  If we call out, you are only a heartbeat away. And should you happen to speak, may our hearts open to your whispered words: “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”  In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we offer our collective prayers:

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 2

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 2, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Gift-Giving God, you are pouring your quiet darkness over another full and often-disordered day, telling us it is time to slow our pace and put away the tools of our trade. Empty our hands and hearts that we might accept this unopened gift of melon-colored twilight, knowing it is offered with love. Inside there are promised treasures of comfort, rest, and reflection. May we honor both the gift and the divine hand that provides it.

As we meditate upon this day of radiant sunshine, we are humbled by all the favors you have brought to pass and the goodness shown to us by others. Especially we recall . . . . . . . . . . We praise you for your overarching benevolence; and even now your snowy ridges are smoothing out those harsh thoughts and hasty actions we deeply regret, especially . . . . . . . . . . .  Draw us close, Lord, and dust away those ugly vices that cling to our boots. And as we pass through the new day to come, may others think of Jesus as we walk by.

Gracious Guardian, it is difficult for us to recognize the depth of need that many still face during this pandemic, especially now that the temperatures have dropped. Guard, we pray, those without shelter or adequate food on the table, the ones facing eviction, the unemployed, the ill, confused and dying. Dry the tears that fall all too frequently these days, and in your mercy, continue to lighten the loads of all your cherished ones, including your friends at Church Street:

  • Member family celebrates birth of new baby boy
  • Prayers appreciated: Grandmother died peacefully
  • A friend is vastly improved from knee surgery
  • Grateful that toddler is tolerating chemo
  • Thanks for prayers: Sister’s surgery was successful
  • Single mother thankful for an unexpected gift
  • Gratitude: One tolerating radiation treatments well
  • Healing for one whose cancer has spread
  • For insurance to cover chemotherapy
  • Courage for alcoholic son to enter rehab
  • Recovery for young couple with Covid
  • Proper diagnosis of painful leg condition
  • Strength and courage for two caregivers
  • All who need virus vaccines
  • Blessings for all assisting with vaccinations
  • Pain relief for cancer victim
  • Healing: Husband recovering from heart surgery
  • Two recovering from serious heart issues
  • Continued prayers: one enduring chemo

Eternal Companion, you have poured out your divine hope upon us and we place our souls, and the souls of all whom we love, into your hands this cold night. We close our eyes in peace, feeling your warming presence beside us; and with the dawn, we will find you there still, ready to support us in whatever lies ahead. Pull together all our prayers, for we offer them in the name of Hope, Jesus our Savior, who prayed 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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Evening Prayer – February 1

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 1, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Wait on the Lord, be of good courage

and he shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the Lord. (Ps 27:14)

O Great Silence, you live beyond the realm of words, in that space we rarely visit. Turn off that spigot of chatter that floods our minds and our mouths, and for this one evening may we join you there to merely keep company with you in your deep mystery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Teach us the beauty of regular resting in you, that we may learn what true restoration is. In our culture where highest praise is directed to production, remind us that we are esteemed by you each time we seat ourselves at your feet and take in whatever glories you choose to whisper.

Once filled with summer’s happy green fans, the oak’s bare branches now wave to us through the windowpane. The empty trees take their losses with more grace than we, knowing in their ancient wisdom that fretting is futile. Our own losses these past long months have been bitter, and we find it difficult to open our hands and let them fall freely as fragmented leaves. But, Nourishing God, as you enrich the soil with leafy shards, so use our shredded despair and broken dreams to fortify us. We may never stand as stately as the oaks, but you will make us strong enough to lean into the winter winds, as we wait for your next season of greenness.

Within your great silence, you have heard the cries of our hearts and have blessed us in many ways. We pray that, as you already have bolstered the spirits of many, you would attend also to these friends and families whose hope is in you:

  • Three celebrate recovery from Covid
  • Thankful family members have received vaccines
  • Gratitude: Husband’s depression is lifting
  • Thanksgiving: Mother discharged from hospital
  • Prayers appreciated: Young niece with infection now home
  • Gratitude for prayers: Son was able to visit his dying mother
  • Thankful that a heart malady is improving
  • God’s grace for colleague whose cancer has spread
  • For insurance to cover chemotherapy
  • Comfort and grace for those who mourn
  • All who need virus vaccines
  • Blessings upon all healthcare workers and volunteers assisting with vaccinations
  • Prayers for shrinkage of pancreatic tumor
  • Comfort for family grieving death of mother
  • Decreased pain for cancer victim
  • Healing mercy for sister recovering from surgery
  • Two recovering from serious heart issues
  • Infant cousin with tumor on spine
  • Continued prayers: One enduring chemo
  • Strength for caregiver under great stress

May your Silent Spirit rest our minds and hearts as we sleep, calming our fears and erasing our sins. Fold us and all whom we love into your embrace, we pray; and tomorrow, may we rise forgiven and free to serve 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 – January 28

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

January 28, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Ah, Lord, you have brought us safely once again to the edge of twilight, where we must confess we are an absent-minded people. Even today we failed to notice your song delivered by the bird on the windowsill, the gleam of sunlight filling a room, the parting of the clouds revealing an ocean-blue sky, the family of stately evergreens huddled close to shield us from the wind. But then, you are the God of Second Chances, so you will help us keep our eyes open wide tomorrow for those flowers of grace you keep unfurling, even in our era of bleakness.

God of the Ordinary, we long to do something of immense significance in improving our world’s vast needs. We cannot resolve homelessness, but we can lend a hand or financially support Habitat projects.We cannot fill every empty belly on the planet, but we can feed our neighbors at Soup Kitchen and Beacon of Hope. We cannot cure cancer and all injurious diseases, but we can send notes to and offer prayers of comfort for the hurting. We often wonder how our small acts actually dent these monumental challenges. Only Jesus knows, and it is in his name that we perform our small deeds in the ordinary ways open to us.

In our ordinariness, Lord, ease our anxieties when we feel we aren’t doing enough, and remind us you are making changes in individual lives and situations, not we ourselves. We rejoice at the ways you blessed us this day, especially in . . . . . . . . . . , while we also ask your forgiveness for the slights we may have inflicted upon others . . . . . . . . Glory to you, Lord Christ!

As the mundane becomes glorified through Christ, we offer these prayers especially for . . . . . . . . . .  and on behalf of your people at Church Street:

  • Ten members offer gratitude to church for helping them acquire virus vaccinations
  • Member grateful for amazing support in her bereavement
  • Grandmother grateful for church’s spiritual guidance and nurture of her grandson
  • Thanksgiving: Infant tolerating cancer treatments well
  • Family of four celebrate recovery from virus
  • Thanksgiving that lung radiation is well-tolerated
  • God’s grace for dear colleague whose cancer has spread
  • Comfort for sons: Beloved mother nearing death
  • Member with cancer, for improved red blood count
  • Pray that son might be able to see his hospitalized mother before she succumbs to Covid
  • Prayers for colleague: Shrinkage of cancer so surgery may proceed
  • Healing for cherished cousin, stroke victim
  • Prayers for clarity for overwhelmed wife
  • Husband struggling with depression
  • Decreased pain for cancer victim
  • Three recovering from serious heart issues
  • Infant cousin with tumor on spine
  • Strength for two mothers: Sons gripped by addiction
  • Continued prayers: One enduring chemo
  • Strength for two weary caregivers
  • For insurance company to approve chemo

O Keeper of the Night, offer your mercy to all your children whose burdens are heavy. Cloak us in holy rest under the beam of the full moon, for we turn over ourselves, and all whom we cherish, into your care. And may our final thoughts before sleep be filled with gratitude, as the prayer of your Son sings in our hearts:

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 – January 26

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

January 26, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

. . . Beloved,  whatever is true, whatever is honorable,

whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing,

whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence

and if there is anything worthy of praise,

think about these things.

Philippians 4:8

 

O God of Clarity, much of today was convoluted. Projects were initiated, then abandoned; simple tasks turned out to be knotted with baffling details; and throughout the hours there was a steady stream of interruptions. All these dashed our hopes of producing anything of value. Take these disordered pieces and false starts, we pray, and infuse them with some sort of meaning; and whatever effort you find worthy, may it serve your purpose in your own good time.

You have called us to walk that road of discipleship that is paved in humility. We freely admit that we have wobbled along that narrow passage that leads to the kingdom, for pride calls out from the wayside, tempting us to toot our own horns. There were those side trips of ego that lured us into criticizing others who had lost their way, and of course there were many jaunts when we insisted on having our own way. Make strong and steady our gait, Lord, along the straight and narrow. We would keep pace with Jesus, that eventually we may arrive at your door to hear your words:  “Well done, thy good and faithful servant.”

Noble One, in the peace of this beautiful evening, as magenta streaks on the horizon turn to ash, we do think of those things of which the apostle spoke: the pure, truthful, commendable, and that which is worthy of praise. . . . . . . . . . .  All these we celebrate and attribute to your benevolence, evidence of your holiness at work among us. Train our eyes and our thoughts to behold all that is honorable within our days and to dwell upon them. And in the spirit of thanksgiving, we turn to you with our gratitude and our concerns, praying on behalf of our friends at Church Street:

  • Grateful for sunshine today that uplifted spirits
  • One thankful for support of her SS class
  • Son thankful for all who brought comfort in bereavement
  • Couple offer gratitude they sustained only mild cases of virus
  • Healing of son who entered a detox program
  • Beloved mother nearing death
  • Solace for member mourning death of a beloved brother
  • Healing for cherished cousin, stroke victim
  • Friend’s mother traveling to MD Anderson for treatment, wisdom for physicians involved
  • Guidance and wisdom for our President and our nation’s leaders
  • Continued prayers for three recovering from serious heart issues
  • Healing: family of four positive for Covid
  • Courage, guidance, and healing: A cousin’s infant diagnosed with a brain tumor, in treatment
  • Strength: A mother weighed down by son’s addiction
  • Healing for husband in deep depression and wife who suffers
  • For wider distribution of virus vaccine
  • Continued prayers: One enduring chemo
  • Father mending from broken hip
  • Strength for two weary caregivers
  • Comfort for one whose mother died of cancer and Covid
  • For insurance company to approve chemotherapy

Draw together our collective evening prayers, along with our blunders and uncertainties, we pray, and cast your coverlet of comfort upon us to heal our brokenness and to keep us warm this cold winter night. Keep your life-candle burning for us and for all whom we love, O Lord, that we might join you joyfully tomorrow – in that new day where impossibilities become possible:

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 – January 20

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

January 20, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Blessed One, night tiptoes in softly across the fields and the city streets, altering both the landscape and the perspective of anyone wise enough to notice. Change is in the air, though in our weakness, we struggle against it. Observing the shaded clouds drifting by, we realize how stagnant our spirits have grown during this past year of pain and loss. We have all been injured in one way or another, and when we are bruised and broken, we cling to the familiar.

God of Wide Horizons, lift us up above our own personal interests, we pray, and spread our concerns wider than ourselves. Take away our complaining mantras and turn them into fresh, life-giving songs. And by your grace, lend us your courage, that we might step outside the predictable to discover the less-traveled byways, leading to new beginnings.

If this historic day has taught us anything, it is how expansive is our nation, how diverse are its people, how precious is our form of government, how complex are our challenges, and how vital is your holy guidance. As a mother blesses a son when he departs from home, as a father prays for a daughter to make the right choices, so do you, Loving Parent, long for us to make wise choices and you pray we will bless others as you have blessed us. Grant us courage to live out the promises we made in our hearts during today’s momentous Inaugural Ceremony, that we might become in truth “One Nation Under God.”

Accept these evening petitions, Faithful Father, and cover with your compassion each of these friends who lay their praises and their wounds at your feet:

  • Gratitude: A hope-filled Inauguration Day
  • One celebrates receiving a virus vaccination today
  • Thanksgiving: Vaccinations arrive at a nursing facility
  • Gratitude for our nation and a peaceful transition of power
  • Grateful for prayers: Employer with asthma and Covid much improved
  • Prayers for distraught mother and her son with addictions
  • Healing of older sister, diagnosed today with Covid
  • Upholding one with serious heart issues
  • Protection and holy guidance for our President and Cabinet
  • Prayers for outgoing President and team members
  • Healing of nerve damage following surgery
  • Prayers for young member suffering from Covid
  • Widening of vaccine distributions
  • Two young mothers in need of employment
  • Recovery for cousin suffering effects of major stroke
  • Healing for brother hospitalized (Covid)
  • Strength and courage one facing chemo
  • Shrinking of a pancreatic tumor
  • Help for a sister, exhausted with caregiving
  • Strength for one enduring chemo side effects
  • Comfort for a member who is seriously ill
  • Recovery for husband with Covid

There are times when we forget who we are and whose we are. But throughout the sleepy hours as we take our rest, you will assure us that we are your chosen ones who belong solely to you. Cover us and all whom we love with your mercy, that we might rise tomorrow to become the channels of blessings we have pledged to be. For Christ’s sake, we make our prayers:

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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