August 13, 2023

Offered by Nanette Sawyer, Associate Pastor

O Holy God, we live in times fraught with division and anxiety, injustice and cruelty. You speak to us of love, and yet we find ourselves swept up into conflict and hatred.

Call us back to your love, and help us to embody that love in justice. Shine your light into our hearts so that we might open like flowers turning toward the sunshine of your grace.

Make our love a strong love, rooted in trust and knowledge of your presence and your power.

We pray today for all people who are suffering, whether from illness, grief, war, or natural disaster.

Be with the people of Maui as they work to recover and rebuild their lives and communities after the devastating fires that took so many precious lives and uprooted so many more.

Be with victims of war and violence of any kind. Bring healing and strength to escape deadly situations and transform desperation into possibility.

Lead us to new ways of being in relationship to each other and to your creation. Be with world leaders and community leaders, shaping vision, giving each one wisdom, compelling each to act for true well-being and justice for all.

Bless those who gather this week for the Parliament of World Religions. Inspire them and bind them into stronger networks of community filled with respect, courage, curiosity, and commitment to your world and all that you have created, God.

Guide our hands and feet as well, Holy One, that we may do your work and reflect your dreams of wholeness and generosity in all our relations.

Let us lean on you, O God of all creation; let us depend on you and be inspired by you, but let us not forfeit our own responsibility and our own power in shaping your world.

As we lift up our spoken prayers and the silent prayers of our hearts, help us to remember, Holy One, that now we know only in part, but even here faith, hope, and love abide, and the greatest of these is love.

Bind us to your steadfast love, God and receive our prayers as we join our voices with the voice of Jesus, praying as he taught, saying, Our Father . . .

Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church