Sunday, August 16, 2015
Offered by Victoria G. Curtiss, Associate Pastor

Merciful God, we thank you for the many ways you feed us, body and soul. We thank you for nurturing us through steadfast affection expressed by our families, supportive care extended by our friends, and sustaining faith embodied by the church. We give you thanks for the companionship of others as well as of you in life’s journey, and we praise you for being our Home.

Help us to consume you, to have the spirit of Christ permeate all we are and do and the ways we interact with others. May we bear one another’s burdens, sharing in sorrow, being present in pain. May we rejoice in one another’s gifts and good news, celebrating moments of joy. We pray that you shape us to express love well to others, including those whose experience of life differs from our own. In the words of St. Francis of Assisi we pray,

Lord, make us instruments of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon; where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

We ask that you would comfort all who are grieving; bring healing to all who are ill; befriend those who are lonely; lift up the discouraged. We pray for peace where there is violence, and trust where there is fear. Reconcile enemies, and bring resources to those who are hungry. All this we pray because we know you love all your people.

Hear us now as we pray the prayer Jesus taught saying, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church