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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Evening Prayer – February 23

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 23, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O Perfecting One, at twilight time, we remember how you came to us in surprising ways in the daylight hours.  You didn’t give us what we wanted; instead, you gave what we needed. We aimed for success, but you began teaching us acceptance.  We wanted to be admired and appreciated, but you kept asking us to love even those we do not like.  We longed for an easy road with no snags, but you presented detours that challenged our own capabilities.   It seems that when we prayed that we might grow in our faith this Lenten Season, you took us seriously.  We really did mean it, Lord, so in the tomorrows that come, help us set aside our sniveling and get on with business — Jesus’ business — of perfecting our souls.

Steadfast One, in our Christian journey, we confess that there are times when our feelings resonate with the psalmist who said: “I am like an owl in the wilderness, like a little owl of the wasteland, like a lonely bird on the housetop.” It isn’t that we feel abandoned necessarily, but it seems that the good we do is so insignificant in a world that threatens to implode.  We feed one and twenty more hungry ones take his place; we sit at the bedside of the ill friend, only to find three others have died alone in the night; we help stabilize one family, when across town entire neighborhoods are being torn apart by violence. We know that nothing is impossible with you, O God, so come to us in our weakness.  Reassure us that your desire is for us to stay the course and serve as best we can as long as we can.

Thank you for making room in the shaded hours for our honest conversations. Even when we have no words, the apostle reminds us to pray without ceasing.  And so we humbly place the praises and longings of our own hearts at your feet . . . . . . . . . . and also these sincere petitions from our church family:

  • Seven offer gratitude for recent vaccinations
  • Gratitude for prayers from member recovering from surgery
  • Member grateful for a beach vacation
  • Thanksgiving: Evidence that cancer treatments are effective
  • Celebrating upcoming opportunity for in-person worship
  • Gratitude for the gift of an exquisite day
  • Prayers for all children who struggle with learning and are behind academically
  • Prayers for a good pathology report
  • All working to address gun violence in our city
  • Family members in North Carolina, suffering with Covid
  • Healing for young husband with Covid
  • Prayers for adult son to become more responsible
  • Continued healing: Mother recovering from a stroke
  • Grieving family who lost a newborn
  • Our schools and administrators at every level
  • Prayers for one in radiation treatment
  • Guidance for adult children, need guidance in caring for elderly mother
  • Member having knee surgery Thursday
  • Two seeking new work opportunities

May the Re-Creator, the One who makes all things new, enter our souls this night, granting us a restorative rest. And with morning light, may we arise refreshed in spirit, ready to walk that more demanding trail that awaits all true friends 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.

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Evening Prayer – February 22

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 22, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

O One Who Tends our Souls, your magnificence beams upon us each day, but in spite of your gifts of wonder, we confess that we often set our minds, not on divine things, but on human things.  We scramble for the paper goods and seize every dairy item in sight at the grocer’s when someone whispers “snow!”  And should we get wind of an increase in gas prices, we race to join the line up at the pumps.  Anxiety is contagious, and when we catch that fever of uneasiness, we grab far more than we need, doubting your loving provision.  Forgive us for allowing ourselves to become tangled again in that knot of fear that has plagued us all our lives.  Teach us to trust during this season, Holy One, and write the apostle’s words upon our hearts: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

O Divine Parent, surely we are an embarrassment to you when we shrink from living as your disciples. And given the many times we have wounded you, it is astonishing that you put up with us at all.  Particularly we recall these personal slights we have inflicted upon you and upon others this day: . . . . . . . . . . We humbly open ourselves to your forgiveness, trusting that you might show us how to claim that power of which the apostle speaks.

These have been days of unease for many of your people, Comforting God, and those trapped by riveting troubles. Be with all those who are trying to recover from deadly winter storms and send willing hands to assist with reconstruction. Give hope to the afflicted, we pray, that they may not give in to despair.  You hear the cries of all whose hearts are unsettled, who bear pain of body, mind and spirit.  Energize our own community that we might bring the evil assaults on our young people to an end. Touch each one, we pray, whose names we now whisper  . . . . . . . . . . . . And also attend to these requests that spring from the souls of our church members:

  • Thanksgiving for prayers: Second chemo treatment completed
  • One offers gratitude for an unexpected financial gift
  • Family celebrates the birth of healthy baby today
  • Prayers appreciated: Young mother’s surgery went well
  • Sister-in-law’s surgery was successful Friday, grateful for prayers
  • Six express thanks for church’s help with vaccinations
  • Pray for countless children who are behind academically
  • Guidance for second grader with learning difficulties
  • Healing: Brother and wife suffering with Covid
  • Healing for young husband with Covid
  • Guidance for mother concerning her son’s health
  • Those struggling with recent bereavements
  • Continued healing: Mother recovering from a stroke
  • Grieving family whose newborn lived only a few days
  • Families devastated by shooting deaths in our city
  • Prayers for one in radiation treatment
  • Comfort and guidance for adult children seeking ways to best care for their elderly mother
  • Prayers for a job opening for a professional man
  • Healing for a young grandson
  • Resolving gun violence in Knoxville
  • Pray for our educators and students at all levels

O Breath Within Our Breath, quiet our souls in the evening hours as we take our rest in your enduring love. Meet our worries and our fears at that mysterious point in the night when your grace somehow blossoms into blessing. All these prayers and petitions we leave with you, in the name of our Redeemer, who taught us to pray in this way:

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

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Evening Prayer – February 18

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 18, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

You gotta walk that lonesome valley,

You gotta walk it by yourself;

For nobody else can walk it for you.

You gotta walk it by yourself.

(Woodie Guthrie)

Creator of Darkness, this morning we had only begun that long Lenten walk toward Jerusalem when we found ourselves already dreading the journey.  We know you want us to widen our hearts, but we fear there will be too much pain involved. Most days we are pretty comfortable just plugging along, yet you are trying to teach us the ways of humility.  Thread your fingers through ours, we pray, and walk with us until we are brave enough to travel that lonely road of introspection on our own. Keep your candle burning in the distance, though, lest we lose our way again.

Under sunless skies, Lord, we headed for home today, only to find our failures and inadequacies were traveling in the car with us; they entered the front door and are even now occupying the most comfortable seats in the house.  One by one they seem to mock us.  Well, they know it is their season to openly present themselves, so we shouldn’t be surprised. But have mercy, we pray, that as we own each of our defeats and failings, they may not linger too long, but will find the back door and disappear into the mist, never to be seen again.  Their brothers and sisters will also visit, but we will deal with them on other days.

Give us that fresh start tomorrow, we pray, that we may be unencumbered.  And how do we know we are freed from what is past?  We walk by faith and not by sight, as do our friends who offer their thanksgivings and their concerns to the One who is ever faithful:

  • Thanksgiving: A home has sold and loan is absolved
  • A senior living facility is reopening for visitors the 22nd
  • Elder member sends gratitude that he is remembered by the church
  • Thankful for work of Parish Health Team in procuring vaccinations
  • Gratitude: For a clear follow-up cancer scan
  • Family grateful for short vacation
  • Courage for both husband and wife diagnosed with ALS
  • Healing: Brother and wife suffering with Covid
  • Guidance for mother concerning her son’s health
  • Those struggling with recent bereavements
  • Young mother undergoing surgery Friday
  • For one having chemo treatment Friday
  • A solution for member anxious about housing
  • Prayers for our Stephen Ministers
  • Families devastated by shooting deaths in our city
  • God’s help for mother building a stable life for her children
  • Prayers for young sister-in-law undergoing mastectomy Friday
  • God’s guidance for couple who may have to move
  • Tolerance for one in extensive radiation treatment
  • Healing for a young grandson
  • A solution for the gun violence in Knoxville

Guardian of our Souls, enfold us in your arms of mercy this night and may we join all your children who will know the tranquility only you can give. Draw in our individual and collective prayers shared this eve, that your love may be known to each one who longs for closer communion with your Son, the 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 17

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 17, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

In your darkness there is no darkness.

With you, O Lord, the deepest night is as clear as the day.

(Taize chant) 

Come, evening, come!  The sky turns to ash and we recall wisdom’s teaching that there is a time for everything, a season for every purpose under the heavens. Your grace has brought us through this long season of Covid travail.  When we were embittered, you taught us tolerance; when we felt isolated, you nudged a friend to call; when we were forlorn, you provided confidence; when our faith was shaken, you widened the hallway of trust; when we languished in illness, you created a powerful remedy.  We are humbled to the core by your faithfulness.  And though   we could never enumerate all your acts of benevolence, we remember these most recent ways you have brought redemption to our door . . . . . . . . .

Lord of the Deepest Night, this season of Lent calls us to admit the unrepented sins that live within us, the ego that is never satisfied, the corrosive trove of guilt stored in our souls, the rugged terrain of our own character.  We are called to grieve the reality of our world that doesn’t live up to your love.  Burn away the inconsistencies of our words, thoughts, and deeds; and empty the residue into your dust bin of nothingness.  May we be bold enough to take on the work of arduous introspection this holy season, that we will be freed from our blindness, and will come to see ourselves with the eyes of truth.

Employing all we have learned this past year, and remembering that you care so earnestly for us, Ever-merciful God, we lay before you our thanksgivings and our appeals:

  • Daughter thankful for church support throughout her mother’s illness and death
  • Member grateful for her Stephen Minister
  • Gratitude: Hospitalized member is improving
  • Appreciation for a new home
  • Grateful for church’s Ash Wednesday observance
  • Member seeking good housing arrangement
  • Guidance for mother concerning her son’s health
  • Prayers that a home may sell quickly
  • Continued prayers for aunt following surgery
  • For one’s white blood count to increase
  • Pray for upholding our Stephen Ministers
  • God’s help for a mother building a stable life for her children
  • Grandson in treatment for lymphoma
  • For strength to keep a holy Lent
  • Grace and guidance for recent widow whose house burned to the ground
  • God’s guidance for couple who may have to move
  • Tolerance for one in extensive radiation treatment
  • Two seeking help in managing depression
  • Healing mercies for mother with leukemia

Holy Hope, as we lay our heads upon your cushion of forgiveness, tuck us in with the promise of renewal. And hear our whispered prayers in the night, that we may become fully reconciled to our neighbors and to you, for you are our hope in this world and in the next.

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 16

BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE

Prayers for the Church Street Family

February 16, 2021

Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade

Designer of the Filmy Moon, the Evening Wind, and the Quiet Stars, somewhere out there you are watching, you are listening.  And though some may think it foolish, we know you have dreams we may each fulfill in the span of years we are granted. Cloak us in your silent love as darkness descends, that we may again receive your assurance that we are treasured just as we are . . . . . . . . . . Breathe in us, Spirit Wind, as we tarry now in your calming silence . . . . . . . . . .

Upon your Word and promise we have built our faith, though our patterns of behavior reflect otherwise.  We confess that we are a fretful people and are not too good at waiting.  We think we need to do it all ourselves rather than trusting in you.  Unfortunately, our efforts too frequently are botched by our race for hasty solutions.  Why is it that we operate on the assumption that we know best?  Forgive us, Faithful One, and share that patience embedded in your heart with us, your frail flock.  Without it we will doom ourselves to living in that somber room painted in shades of false pride.

As Jesus sought your counsel in aloneness, he also knew you as the God of Community.  He therefore sought the company of the unwashed, the sinner, the frightened, the proud, the weak, the undeserving, and invited all to dine with him.  And as he looked around the table, he found faces just like ours.  To them and to us he offered his comfort and hope.  How blessed we are to have been called into this blessed communal life where you are ever the Accepting Host, where our togetherness discounts none, but uplifts all.

As part of your Church Street community, we bring you our joys this day . . . . . . . . . . and we covet your forgiveness for our missteps . . . . .  . . . . Renew us for your service and hear the prayers of all who rely upon your goodness and mercy:

  • Member thankful depression has improved
  • Prayers appreciated- aunt’s breast surgery successful
  • Member grateful- financial burden being lifted
  • Thanksgiving for volunteers assisting with vaccinations
  • Appreciation to the Parish Health Team for assistance in securing medical help
  • Comfort for member struggling with grave illness
  • Prayers for a good housing arrangement
  • Courage for one diagnosed with ALS
  • For one’s white blood count to increase
  • Grandson in treatment for lymphoma
  • Prayers for healing ill loved one
  • God’s guidance for couple who may have to move
  • Upholding one in radiation treatment
  • Two seeking help in managing depression
  • Cherished mother recovering at home
  • Parent seeks God’s help in creating a stable life for her children

Quiet the bumps in the night, Gentle Keeper, that we, and all whom we love, may rest in peace. And when morning comes, we will remember that yours is the lasting peace that will carry us through every test tomorrow may present.  Receive these, our earnest prayers offered in the name of your Son who taught us to pray:

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

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