Sunday, May 10, 2009
Offered by Thomas C. Rook, Parish Associate

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, creator of the universe and of this living green earth, our beautiful home of sapphire sky and starry expanse, established for the nurture of life. We give you thanks this day, gracious Lord, that within your creation you have provided for our needs—air and food and shelter—and have dressed your world with a beauty that cheers our spirits. And not only that, in your love you have shared yourself with us, giving us confidence through your Son to trust that you are on our side and that we do not walk alone on our life’s journey.

And yet how aware we are, loving God, that all is not well in your world. With each youngster who suffers, who dies an untimely death, whether in the streets of Chicago or in a refugee camp in the Sudan, how a tear must fall from your eye. And likewise there are tears of mothers and fathers who have tried in vain to provide safety for their children. We deeply sense, O Lord, how such things should not be. May leaders and governments and people of goodwill pursue tirelessly the things that make for peace.

We are grateful this morning for all those in our own lives for whom we care and who care for us. They become for us, gracious Lord, expression of your own care for us. Especially on this Mother’s Day, we remember with love and gratitude our mothers—how from our birth they have given of themselves for us, how they’ve anguished for us when we didn’t even know it, and loved us beyond any measure that we could ever return. And now, in the later years of their life, we give thanks for those grown children who faithfully return the gift of caring to their aged mothers and fathers and for surrogate parents, those who attend to our children—teachers and tutors and mentors who give quality time to these young ones who represent our best hopes for the future.

We are grateful for those who faithfully invest themselves in the work of Christ, in the great purposes of Christ’s church, in the work of this congregation. May we, with others in our city and nation, continue to advocate for those without voice in the seats of power—the children, the homeless, the stranger and alien, the addicted, none of whom are lost to your love and mercy.

Finally, we thank you this and every day for yourself, O God—for always seeking and finding us when we lose our way, drawing us to your side when fear darkens our spirit, claiming us as your own when we have forgotten to whom we belong. Mindful of all that you are and all that you provide to us, we now join our voices in the prayer given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, praying together, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church