BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
August 19, 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Come down, O Love Divine, seek thou this soul of mine
and visit it with thine own ardor glowing;
O Comforter draw near, within my heart appear,
and kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.
Creator of Love, sweep down among us once again, as you did at Pentecost, that we might inhale your very own breath. Fill our lungs, we pray, with that mysterious essence we cannot name, born of the Spirit world. Somehow when we chant the old verses which cannot be improved upon, our memories burn – the moments when your love first pricked our souls, moments when we knew beyond a doubt that our lives were irrevocably linked with yours, times when we fairly floated, so eager were we to be about your business. We know we can’t return to those rose-colored days, though these memories are hallowed, seared into our life stories. Instead you are ever doing a new thing: “Have you not seen? Have you not heard?” asked the prophet. Touch our eyes and our ears with your own glowing ardor, then we will be strangely warmed, vitally perceptive, and poised to move into your newness.
Love Divine, hear our prayer.
O let Love freely burn, will earthly passions turn
to dust and ashes in its heat consuming;
And let thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,
and clothe me round the while my path illuming.
O Coming Freedom, we are anchored to this earthly life with all its vicissitudes. It’s all we know for now, though Jesus speaks of that other place where God’s will is done, where bondage to earthly ways are broken. Perhaps if we simply cease our grappling for goods, power, and approval we would indeed see your kingdom come, where earth is subsumed in heaven’s glory. For now, we pray for that illumined path — but not for ourselves alone, for the Spirit gives us the mission of sharing your love with the world. Our petitions are many: for peoples existing under the thumbs of tyrants, refugees fleeing for their lives, those whose lives have been shattered because of natural or man-made disasters, families broken by the pandemic. Meet them in those lifeless places, we pray, giving growth to that everlasting ember of hope that lives deep within.
Love Divine, hear our prayer.
Still Spirit, you enfold us in your pure light, and we know your grace is quietly moving in the corners of our private lives. Receive our prayers of thanksgiving for the newness you bring; and also hear us as we name the other needs of our brothers and sisters at Church Street. Gather these, we pray, in your Spirit’s embrace:
- Thankful that shoulder procedure went smoothly, please continue prayers
- Mother sends gratitude for our preschool, as she is able to return to work
- Friend rejoices, having completed long recovery following an accident
- Gratitude for successful rotator cuff surgery on Monday
- Nephew suffering from burns is improving, please continue prayers
- Pray for loved ones isolated in homes & residences, for hope & endurance
- Protection for a friend teaching in-person classes in Mississippi
- Safety for all educators, children & youth as new school term begins
- Two broken families, that God’s healing peace will be at work in each
- Two with lingering cancer, for easing of pain & nausea
- Healing of daughter ‘s increasing anxiety; a depressed daughter-in-law
- Continued healing & lifting of spirits of member with chronic illness
- Three families personally infected with the virus, for healing
- Easing of food shortage (North Korea) to prevent slaughter of family dogs
- Protection for mother & family who presently live in fear & turmoil
- Healing of young granddaughter in Alabama college, healing of virus
- Family coping with death of beloved husband to the virus
- God’s grace to encircle sister recovering from stroke complications
What we cannot do for ourselves, we know the Spirit will do for us.
Love Divine, hear our prayer.
And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
shall far outlast the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till Love create a place
wherein the Holy Spirit makes a dwelling.
Accept our breath-praise this day. Truly at times our hearts are full to bursting, but words get in the way and our gratitude is often lost in the telling. But we remember and you remember. Send us out afresh to be ambassadors of Love Divine, to our neighbors, families, coworkers, and all whom we meet along the way. In harmony may we lift the song of the Holy Spirit – unending and ageless:
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.
