October 11, 2009
Seventh Sunday in Kingdomtide
Eternal God, our Creator, remind us that it is you who made us and not we ourselves. We are your people and the sheep of your pasture. We enter into your gates with thanksgiving. We come into your courts with praise.
Make yourself so real to us in these brief moments that in our dark times, in the valleys and shadows of life, we will not doubt that you are still with us. May our family life be more wholesome, our friendships more faithful, our difficulties borne more lightly, our challenges faced with more courage, and our work done with more diligence, because we have met here.
Grant us victory over our doubts. You know how easily they undermine the meaning of life until finally we are left alone in a universe which is cold and empty. But teach us to question everything. Let the deepest questions of our hearts open us to the mysteries of life.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us today. Grant us sensitive hearts and listening ears. Do not let us close our eyes to the beauty of creation. We pray that you would overcome our dullness, our insensitivity, our callousness, our thanklessness. Spirit of the living God, fill us with the gift of your presence.
We pray today for the people of this church and for the friends and families closest to us: Heal, protect and strengthen them according to their need. Comfort those who mourn with the assurance of your presence.
We ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together with sisters and brothers across the whole human family: 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.
*This prayer borrows from Harry Emerson Fosdick’s, “A Book of Public Prayers,” 1959.