Almighty God, Father in heaven, from whom all the graces of life flow freely to your creation, we give thanks for your mercy, your love, your kindness … and most of all, for Jesus Christ our LORD, in whom the fullness of your glory was pleased to dwell … who came to preach peace to all who were far away and peace to those who were near …
This day, O God, is the first day of the rest of our life.
Today, O God, we begin anew.
We let go of the past and push on to the future.
We look to your promise of grace, in this life and in the life to come.
Grant us, we pray, today, our daily bread.
Needful things necessary to life – food and shelter, family and friends, employment and income … and the wellbeing of our nation, and those who lead us.
Help us, we pray, to eat with gratitude, to appreciate what we have, and to look upon our family with reverence and regard our friends with tenderness … to be ever-grateful for our work, and to manage our income with generosity … building bridges and healing wounds, and if we can’t take down the fence, O God, we’ll install a gate, a gate that swings both ways, so that we can, in Christ, be brothers and sisters unto one another.
Almighty God, we commend to you this day those for whom life is hard …
And we vow, O God, to do all within our power to make this world a world of peace and justice as you would have it … that those who much won’t have too much, and those who have little won’t have too little.
Teach us, O God, how to live profoundly.
How to live in Christ.
How to live for you.
How to live for one another.
We pray, O God, for the leaders of the world who strive for peace.
We pray especially for the nations of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan … we pray for Israel and for the Palestinians … we pray for the United Nations and the World Court …
We pray, dear God, for Doctors Without Borders, for the Peace Corps and missionaries around the world …
We pray for our soldiers and their chaplains … especially we pray for Chaplain Ed Brandt and his family, and his church, Pacific Palisades … hasten the time, O God, when our soldiers can lay down their arms and come home to the arms of their loved ones …
Stir within us, O God, the best of instincts and the brightest of hopes. Help us, we pray, to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, as Jesus said we could be.
And when we pass from this life, O God, we will leave a legacy worthy of our name, a legacy of faithfulness and kindness, a legacy of a better world, more just and peaceful, for our having passed this way.
In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done …
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