BINDING SOUL AND SOURCE
Prayers for the Church Street Family
November 3, 2020
Make me a channel of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me bring Your love;
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord,
And where there’s doubt, true faith in You.
Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there’s sadness, ever joy.
O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
-Sebastian Temple
We greet you this morning, Welcoming God, trusting in your divine presence and infinite wisdom to guide us throughout this day. This is an important time for our nation – we, the people of the United States of America – for on this day we will elect leaders who will take us into the future. May those we elect be ones whose guiding principles reflect a vision of shalom – peace with justice for all your children, both here and around the world.
As your beloved children, created in your image, we long to be channels of your peace, to stand above the fray as witnesses to the transforming power of your love. But how do we sing your song in the midst of all the chaos? It seems that we have lost our way, no longer able to celebrate the amazing diversity that defines us as a nation.
Throughout today and in the days to follow, may our thoughts, words, and actions be reflections of Christ’s love for each of us. Turn our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks that we may be agents of your healing peace and uniting love.
In the midst of all that seeks to consume us this day, may we not forget the hurting, the lost, the lonely, the outcast, the grieving, the ill, the dying, the dispossessed, and the disenfranchised. For many of these, the election may not be in the forefront of their lives, and voting may not even be a possibility. Yet, it is these, first and foremost, for whom Christ came, those whom we are called to serve in his name. Remind us that, as people of faith, it is for them also that we cast our vote.
And as on all days, we share our deepest joys and perplexities with you, knowing that it is your grace that upholds us all:
- Grateful for prayers: Friend in North Carolina improving from virus infection
- Thanksgiving for healthcare workers and their dedication
- Family thankful that a pregnancy is proceeding well
- Prayers for God’s healing and a way forward for our splintered nation
- Prayers for young mother, relief from postpartum depression, anxiety
- Two sons with major addictions, that they may pursue rehabilitation
- Prayers for wife this week at the Mayo Clinic for further diagnosis of brain malady; safety and comfort for her faithful family
- Prayers for young grandson with autism, healing of his self-abuse
- Continued prayers, nephew in Missouri, seriously ill with Covid-19
- Member grieving on anniversary of wife’s death and many struggles
- Sustaining dear friend and her family as they move her to a new facility
- Healing and guidance for family – husband ailing with very serious illness
- Strength for friend with metastatic cancer, wisdom for her physicians
- Prayers that a federal court ruling on November 9 will be lenient and just
- Healing of granddaughter (16) very ill with gastroparesis
- Continued prayers for young wife battling leukemia
- Sustaining prayers for mother in hospice care and her worried family
God of grace and glory, you have told us through your prophet Micah what you require of us – to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you. As “required” people, empowered by your Spirit, flood our hearts and minds with your vision for your world – the Beloved Community – and give us the courage and strength to walk into the future as channels of your peace, trusting that the Risen Christ goes before us to prepare the way. And so, as people of the Resurrection, we confidently offer the prayer he taught us:
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.
Special thanks to Rev. Pat Clendenen for contributing to this week’s prayers.
