Prayers for the Week of February 25, 2024

Artwork by Lauren Wright Pittman

used with permission via A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org

Please feel free to join in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, February 25, 2024:

God of grace and mercy,

you created us and all that is in love,

and you love us through and through.

You formed us from the earth,

and have woven us together

for life lived together in love.

And in every bit of that life, you accompany us;

you know us;

you are familiar with all our ways.

You know our stumbling and our fumbling,

and even the harm we do,

and you love us still,

always ready with a correcting word, and forgiveness.

Your grace abounds,

and we give you thanks and praise.

Forgive us all the ways we have wrecked your world,

and help us do better.

In these days of climate unraveling,

help us stop our wasting ways,

help us find sustainable ways of living,

ways that help ameliorate the harm we have set in motion.

Forgive us our violence,

and give us hearts for peace with justice.

We pray for the people of Gaza.

We pray for an immediate ceasefire,

and an end to the siege and the slaughter of Gazans.

We pray for the restoration of systems that provide basic human needs,

for full and free access to hospitals and medical care and food and water,

and freedom.

We pray for the people of Rafah, and the nations of this world,

including our own will say no to violence against those taking refuge there.

Forgive the violence of our own culture and nation,

particularly the violence embedded in American structural racism.

Help us dismantle systems that harm,

and reform and rebuild a world where every person can live and thrive.

Teach us your forgiveness.

Teach us how to embrace the world with your grace –

to speak and honor truth – even hard truth –

to be open and ready to change –

to try again to love others as you love us and all creation.

We pray for all those in need.

For those who are unhoused, we pray for shelter.

For those who are hungry, food enough and more.

For those who are lonely, comfort.

For those who are ailing in body or spirit, healing.

For those who mourn, comfort.

For all the world: love, justice, healing, freedom, and peace.

You have created us for life lived in community.

In community with all creation, with all those who have every called your name,

we join their voices with their voices,

praying the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, saying:

Our Father/Mother, 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 sins, as we forgive those who sin 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.