Sunday, February 11, 2007
Offered by Adam Fronczek, Associate Pastor

We gather together this day to praise you, O Lord,
for in unlikely ways, you have gathered us together as your people.
We come, each with our own concerns, our own backgrounds,
            our own thoughts and prayers for the day—
prayers of gladness and prayers of sorrow,
prayers for patience and for strength.
And we thank you that in all our differences and in all our uniqueness,
you gather us together in your name to share
our abiding faith in you and our love for one another.

We gather together in this improbable way,
just as your people once gathered to hear Jesus,
meeting on a level place where they could see him eye-to-eye
and know his care and compassion for them.
Just as those people were healed and sent forth to do your work,
so we find ourselves part of that story that continues still today,
and we pray to you for strength, because there is more left to do.

Give us strength, O Lord,
for we can do more for people who freeze and starve in the cold Chicago winter;
we can do more for children who want to learn and yet lack adequate schools;
we can do more for people whose neighborhoods are beset by crime
and for families that are beset by domestic violence;
we can do more for friends and strangers alike who suffer
from disability and disease and lack health care—
we can offer them care in the hospitals of our own city
and in the clinics of Kenya and Cameroon;
we can do more for those who long for shelter and safety in New Orleans;
we can provide more guidance for adults who have lost their way;
we can provide more help to children who deserve a shot at a good life.

We can heal all of these ills and more, O Lord,
not because of our own abilities or individual strengths,
but because we share these struggles with each other
and with those who came before us,
calling for your guidance and your help,
calling for your power by which we are taught.
We share these struggles and this power with faithful people
who gathered long ago on a level place.
They brought their diseases and their unclean spirits
and asked Jesus to heal them and to teach them.
He healed them and sent them out.

Send us, Lord, for we will go where you want us to go.
Send us with your blessing to China and to Cabrini-Green,
to Cuba and to Columbus Avenue and Calumet,
to New Orleans and to many new places we do not yet know,
and encourage us as we keep our doors wide open to all who might come here
to this house we have prepared for your ministry.

Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church