BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
January 13, 2021
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Breathe, O breathe thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast!
Let us all in thee inherit; let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning; Alpha and Omega be,
End of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.
(UMH 384)
Loving Spirit, we know that you weep when your people are deeply divided, at war with each other and within themselves; your tears fall when voices of hatred and disrespect breed instability. It seems that violence is buried deep in our bones and even makes its home in the little grey cells of our minds. Why else would we be so quick to harm and so slow to bring healing? Forgive us for failing you and one another. May our own tears join with yours until they flow into your great stream of justice and mercy. Take away out bent to sinning, we pray, and set our hearts at liberty.
God of the Starry Silence, the daylight hours whisper their goodbyes. They have been your sacred gift to us, as is this lengthening span of darkness. Let us reflect upon the unmerited joys that you have sent our way: . . . . . . . . . . And grant that the good we may have done in the earlier hours give witness to your own generosity emerging through us, your human vessels. Even in the ebony hours, you gaze clearly through the window of our souls. With each passing night, we pray you might observe growing integrity, humility, and faith within.
And despite the thinness of our faith, we entrust to you all those persons and situations that are uppermost in our hearts, especially . . . . . . . . . . And in this interval of silence, we also share both the celebrations and the worries of our church family, knowing your loving Spirit is only a breath away:
- Prayers appreciated: Friend released from hospital
- Gratitude: Recovery from surgery has gone well
- Thanksgiving: One’s depression has lifted
- Member grateful – released from rehab
- One offers thanks for continued healing from pneumonia & virus
- For help to arrive: Sister overwhelmed with caregiving
- Prayers for wife facing serious surgery and for worried family
- Peaceful resolution to our nation’s bitter divisions
- That holy wisdom may guide our country’s leaders
- Co-worker who died from virus and his family
- Healing -husband seriously ill with Covid
- Courage for one beginning chemo
- Three children grieving the death of their mother
- Friend recovering from serious car wreck
- Healing for teenage granddaughter with Covid
- Family grieving sudden death of father
- A father depressed due to isolation
- Two healing from serious heart conditions
- For new meds to slow the growth of one’s cancer
- Courage and strength for one facing major surgery Friday
- Healing for one enduring cancer treatments
- For new employment: Young mother stunned by her layoff
Alpha and Omega, into your hands we commend ourselves, for you created and redeemed us. This night, may your grace enter every troubled breast, giving peace and rest. And tomorrow may we rise to walk that straight path you will be fashioning for us as we sleep. We ask all these things in the name of our Savior, who bears the love that never fails and who taught us to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
