Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family
Week of October 21, 2021
Rev. Jan Buxton Wade
Blessed are you, God Over Us, for each autumn morning you bring us a breakfast tray brimming with glories. Green leaves, veined with bronze and gold, wave their quiet hellos, using blue heaven as a pristine backdrop. Fluffy- tailed squirrels scurry about, carrying crunchy brown treasures released by heavy oaks, while sweet apple fragrance fills the air. In this season you command our attention, Lord; from the crunch of twigs underfoot to the bracing breeze that stings the spine, you speak to us! Forgive us, we pray, when we squander your offerings – favors from your heart that tell us we are beloved. As the earth turns according to your divine will, turn our souls in your direction. May we be poised to discern your wooing from every stone and bit of stubble in the field.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer
Blessed are you, God Beside Us, for your step is in tandem with ours. In these erratic times, however, we confess that we often feel insecure, ungrounded, and alone. We remember your Son was also clothed in humanity, and that he experienced those dark nights of the soul, enduring so much more than we. Yes, we believe, Lord, that the Resurrected Christ is our Hope and our Redeemer. Yes, we believe; yet we need you to shore up our belief. When our dreams fade, our bodies let us down, when our loved ones pass on, when friends forget us, when society is increasingly splintered, steady our steps, we pray. Guide us toward that place of peace within yourself. And there may we rest awhile until we are strong enough to walk along with you again, down that unwavering path of faith.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Blessed are you, God Around Us, for Jesus said he had flocks of which we are not aware. That truth alone reveals the immense breadth of your benevolence. It underscores the fact that neither this world, nor this universe, is the property of one nation or people, no matter how powerful. Might those flocks include those we pass every day, yet do not see? Do they live in communities which we are afraid to visit? Are they the throngs who exist behind bars, hemmed in by hopelessness? Could they be those who are yet to be born? You are the God of no boundaries, whose plan encircles all time and space and whose mercies are immutable. Our questions are many and answers elude us. Nevertheless, may we live secure in the knowledge that those whom you love we are also called to love and to serve. By your grace, might we grow in respect and friendship with all, until that day when all flocks shall be gathered with you in your all-encompassing community.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Receive now, we pray, these praises and petitions from our church family, for you are always ready to listen to your children. We sense your working among us and trust in your sustaining mercy.
- Gratitude for prayers: member has received a new job
- Praises for prayers – daughter with Covid now removed from ventilator
- Family thankful for support during a father’s death
- Thankful that husband with ALS has had a good week
- Family celebrates a new daughter-in-law
- Grateful that two family members are now vaccinated
- Cancer sufferer is thankful for her wise physicians
- Thanksgiving: grandson (17) dealing well with chemo
- Member thankful hip surgery will not be required
- Healing prayers for member who suffered injuries in a fall
- Prayers for young mother adjusting to new medications
- Courage & guidance for member beginning cancer treatment in Nov.
- Children of Grace School in Uganda, for guidance, opportunities
- Blessings for two young women in final weeks of pregnancy
- Healing prayers for two sons in treatment for addiction
- Healing prayers – father (92) suffering from Covid
- Friend whose mother died last week
- Easing of grief for 3 recently widowed
- Mother in treatment for thyroid cancer; father with leukemia
- God’s grace for three fathers suffering from Parkinson’s
- Prayers for daughter burying her father this week
- Healing for best friend: Aggressive cancer treatment
- Recovery for cousin on ventilator
Blessed are you, O God With Us, in this season of splendor, we witness nature taking on its own work of pruning and nourishing the earth. Still, it is a time to plant that which will burst forth when spring arrives. Along with the tulip bulb, may we bury thoughtfulness and kindness, that they might spread their roots far and wide underneath the raven earth. May we bury generosity, that it might permeate the soil along with the winter rain. And may we sow seeds of peace, that they would multiply, becoming extensions of your holy peace. And when warm winds blow again, may all flourish, bringing honor to the One 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.
