Sunday, February 12, 2012
Offered by Victoria G. Curtiss, Associate Pastor

Great God, we thank you for embracing us, and not just us, but all your people. In voicing our intercessions, we acknowledge that the needs we mention are often ours as well as those of others, and we ask not that you fix everything and spare us from responsibility, but that you shape us so that we may be means of grace to others for whom we pray.

We pray for those who anticipate death by evading life because they fear the transforming death of self-loss and change, and for those who spend life fleeing or fighting death because they fear its power more than believe in yours.

We pray for those too careful to care for anyone and for those so uncared for that they suspect and withhold care; for those too defensive about assuring their status to face criticism; and for those so unsure of themselves that they can only maintain their status by dispensing criticism.

We pray for those too anxious about their security to be productive, and for those too complacent in their security to be productive; for those whose vision of the public good has been blurred by their visions of personal glory and gain; and for those whose impoverished vision and powerless position make them unable to contribute to the public good.

We pray for the half of the world that is hungry or malnourished and for the other half that they have the will to give what they have and the sense to avoid making their giving a means of control; for those who labor to provide medical care for all; and for those who struggle without the medical care they need.

We pray for those whose bodies and minds are twisted and tortured by inhumanity and for those doing the twisting and torturing; for those who seek to establish equal justice under the law; and for those who have been used badly by the law or used the law badly in their own interests.

We pray for the powers that be, that they may have an ear for the powerless, and for antagonists in conflict, that they may become partners in peace.

We need your healing strength and guiding wisdom, gracious God. We cherish your compassion. O Maker of all things new, make us and our world new so that we reflect Your kingdom on earth. All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father . . .

(Prayer adapted from a prayer by C. Eric Mount, Jr. in Let US Pray, edited by Martha S. Gilliss.)

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church