Prayers for the Week of May 12, 2024

Please feel free to join us in the prayers prayed in worship Sunday, May 12, 2024:

Loving God,

you have created all that is

to live freely in this world.

You have created us to live

in loving relationship with each other

and with all creation,

relationships of justice and mutuality,

so that each of us might be free

to become all that you intend us to be.

For the love and freedom that we find in you,

we give you thanks and praise.

Leaning into your great love for all creation,

and the life we find in Resurrection,

we pray for all the people and places in the world

that yearn for liberation.

We pray for an end to every oppressive system,

and particularly for American systems of racism.

We pray for an end to war, for peace with justice –

for peace in Ukraine, and Israel/Palestine,

for every people suffering violence and war.

We pray for all who are harmed by the violence in Gaza.

We pray for an immediate and permanent cease fire,

for the return of hostages,

for an end to genocide and collective punishment.

We pray for a restoration of access to the essentials needed for life –

access to medical services, water, and food.

We pray for the people of Rafah, already suffering,

that they might be spared the violence being threatened even now.

We pray for a lasting peace, that brings with it

new systems and structures that enable

all to live free and thrive.

We pray for all who long to be free

of pain, and hurt, and harm.

For those ailing in body or spirit, we pray for healing.

For the unhoused, shelter.

For the hungry, food enough and more.

For the lonely, companionship.

For those who mourn, comfort.

We give thanks for all the ways you bring love into our lives.

We give thanks for mothers,

for those living now, and for those departed and dearly missed –

for mothering love in all the ways we experience it.

We thank you for your abiding love and strength

in the complexity of family –

and for all the ways that you weave us together

for love and life.

Embraced in the expansive Way of Resurrection,

we pray in community with all whom you have ever loved.

And with all who have ever called your name,

we pray the prayer that Jesus taught, 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.

 Photo credit: Abhishek Koli, used by permission via Unsplash