All Saints’ Sunday, November 2, 2014
Offered by Victoria G. Curtiss, Associate Pastor

Creator of all, as we are gathered to praise and thank you, we are present with all your people. There is one bread, one body. Behind all differences of custom, all disagreement over how to do things, all variance in our positions, the people whose Lord is Christ are one people. Hallow us all to your service, and give us the love for one another which brothers and sisters in faith ought to have.

Father and Mother God, we come here not only with all those who name you, but with the vaster company still of all whom you have made and who are yours whether they know it or not. They are here because we are here, for we are a part of them and they are a part of us—our families, our neighbors, our work colleagues, those we watch on the screen and read about online. We give thanks for them and pray for them. May the bread which feeds us here feed them also through us.

We thank you especially this day for the joyful and triumphant company of those who went before us in the faith—in their time stricken, like us, with difficulties, doubts, disasters, yet holding fast to Christ and so to thankfulness and hope. May we feel here the breadth and depth and strength of the communion of saints, so we, too, may persevere in the journey of faith.

Continue to be with all who work for peace, whether in our cities’ neighborhoods and schools or in war-torn countries of the world. Comfort those who have lost loved ones, and strengthen and heal all who face health challenges. Protect and strengthen medical workers seeking to diminish the impact of Ebola, and bring calm where there is unfounded fear. Guide citizens of the United States as we vote for government leaders, that those elected would work for the common good and be guided by your wisdom. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray: Our Father . . .

(The third paragraph is adapted from a prayer in A Call to Prayer, edited by Caryl Micklem.)

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church