BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
November 19 2020
Rev. Dr. Jan Buxton Wade
Voice of Calm, we enter your presence, as you long ago whispered for us to draw near. You tenderly hollowed out that cavern within us that yearns for communion with the Holy. Much is taking place beyond that veil of knowing, for your Spirit works in ways and in places of which we have never heard. Fill that empty space you created inside us, we pray, for it is just large enough for that presence for which we thirst. We shall rest now in silence and let you touch whatever it is within us that needs attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For your radical love that accepts us, for your amazing grace that replenishes us, and for your covenant blessing which binds us to you, we are grateful and humbled.
Accompany each one who travels with heavy sorrows this day, O Friend of the Falling, as many stumble through the dark expanse of pain. As Jesus knew the sharp edges of loss, he knows how our world struggles with the penetrating wounds inflicted by disease, and particularly by the present pandemic. We sense you working through science and technology to bring us the promised vaccine; so gift us also, O Lord, with a bit more patience as we endure. And when we feel ourselves wavering under the weight of the virus or the grief that accompanies it, set us aright, that we might boldly walk with the courage of Jesus.
So many cry out to you from far and wide, but we know that through your gracious mystery, you attend to each of us individually. With that confidence, believing that our pain is your pain, our joys are your joys, we offer the praises and concerns of your people of Church Street:
- Prayers appreciated: Young grandson in D.C. much improved
- Gratitude for our choir and musicians whose music lifts our spirits
- One is thankful for new employment
- Appreciation for all healthcare workers who serve faithfully; please pray for their protection
- Pray for a wife having further consultations at the Mayo Clinic today
- Peace for faithful member awaiting PET scan results today
- Beloved wife awaiting pathology report on Friday
- Full recovery for husband at Vanderbilt following heart surgery
- That a mother’s surgery in South Carolina will go well today
- Complete healing for one recovering from eye surgery
- Prayers for one undergoing an eye surgery today
- Prayer that a friend’s treatments will sufficiently shrink his pancreatic tumor so it can be surgically removed
- Strength for stressed brother caring for his wife who has dementia
- Healing of family members ill with COVID: Mother-in-law, father, daughter and her two children, teenage daughter, sister-in-law, mother, grandson, and granddaughter; peace and reassurance for family members giving care
- Solace for grieving family in the death of beloved wife and mother
- Prayers that our community will heed public health guidelines
- Friends and family members unable to visit loved ones in isolation
- Calm and reassurance for couple planning a wedding
- Prayers for all families receiving Thanksgiving baskets on Saturday
- Guidance for weary caregiver; continued healing for her husband
- Faithful Christian friend in ICU with progressive cancer
Thank you, Blessed One, for receiving us just as we are, for keeping your candle burning through the wee hours, and for leaving your door ajar, just in case we cry out in the night. How blessed we are to be counted among those multitudes who call you Father and who now join us in offering the prayer of you Son:
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.
