Sunday, June 24, 2012
Offered by Donna Gray, Minister for Children and Families

O what a beautiful morning. O what a beautiful day. And here we are in your house, God. You have made us to live in the rhythm of work, paid or volunteered. You have made us to live in the rhythm of worship. So we have come away from the routine of work to enter into the ritual of worship to discover how you love us and the life to which you call us. Show us creative uses of this hour, uses that may open us to transform our old ways of being, that may keep us from forgetting who we are and to whom we belong.

You have given us a charge to keep, a calling to fulfill, a message to give, an example to be, a mission to accomplish.

Refresh our minds, renew our bodies, and restore our being.

Gracious God, direct us away from ourselves to the needs of others.

We pray for those who are hungry and for all those who walked for hunger this week to be a small part of the solution.

We pray for places of war and violence around the world and our own city streets. We are grateful for all those people who work tirelessly to end conflict and establish peace, sometimes at the risk of their own lives.

We pray for those who are sick, for all who assist in their recovery—nurses, assistants, doctors, physical therapists, caregivers and care teams, friends, and neighbors.

We pray for all who travel during these summer months, for our youth on a work trip in Hazard, Kentucky. We pray for commissioners, staff, and observers going to General Assembly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We pray for families on vacation and those who travel for business.

O God, make us all prepared travelers on the way of life forever with you.

Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church