Given by Rev. Claire Phillips-Thoryn
On Sunday, September 16
Gracious and Loving God, Creator and Sustainer, be with us now as we gather in your presence.
Great Spirit, we come to you with our hands held over our hearts. Our cup runneth over. We have been given so many blessings. We hold your love and strength, our thankfulness, our awe and joy that we have been given so much. Help us to feel your courage and profound peace within us, embracing and guiding us.
God, we come to you with our head bent down, heavy with our cares. For all our blessings we still have pain in our lives. We have used words or actions to hurt others and we too have been hurt in return. With our heads bowed we acknowledge our deep imperfection and pray for your grace, your forgiveness, and your help to do what is right.
Oh God, we beseech you with hands outstretched. When we turn our thoughts from our own small lives, we are confronted with the width and breadth of your beautiful, broken world. We pray for the lost, the lonely, the soldier, and the stranger. Give them your love, your courage, as you have graced us in times past. Place in our hands your gifts, your tools, to change this world.
God of Creation, we lift up our faces toward your bright sun and blue sky, your changing leaves and whispering wind. Your world, so broken, so blessed, is all around us. Our hearts sing with potential and hope. We can help, we can change, we can love, and we thank you, Oh God, for these gifts.
Amen.
Given by Roger Paine
On Sunday, September 30
Gracious God, who has given us more than we could ever have dreamed or asked,
it was one of your greatest servants, Meister Eckhart, who told us
that if the only prayer we ever say is “thank you,” it will be enough.
So on this morning, and every morning, hear our prayers of thanksgiving.
We give thanks for all those moments when we have felt your presence in our lives, close and sure;
and for any and every time when we have been able to serve as a channel for your goodness.
We give thanks for the presence in our lives of all the people who love us and who we love –
we know that without them, we would not be the person we are;
they are, for us, a gift and a blessing.
Remind us to tell them so, to say the words, even if they are no longer here with us in this life.
We thank you for staying so close to all who suffer;
be with anyone who knows not what another day will bring.
Help us remember to pray not only for family and friends, but also for people we have never met,
those whose names someone here with us speaks aloud in this sacred space,
those who are homeless and hungry, those who lead our country.
Soften our hearts and stir our compassion, for we all stand in need of your love and care.
Help us to make ourselves ready to reach out, by word and deed,
knowing that we often have within us much of what is needed to answer our own prayers.
Challenge and encourage us to share what we have.
Help us not to be anxious, but by prayer and petition, and with thanksgiving,
to present these, our requests, to you.
O God of Love and Truth, keep our hearts open to the guidance you can give us
if only we listen to the clear voice of our own conscience –
the voice you gave us, that speaks from the spark of divinity you built in to each of us.
Finally, help us to make these prayers of thanksgiving and intercession a part of our daily lives.
Amen.