Whatever our momentary mood, O LORD, whatever our fortune may be, charge our souls with gratitude, that we may always find cause to thank you … and have reason to flood heaven with our praise! For great is your name, and vast are your blessings, and blessed are we to be a part of Christ.
We thank you, O God:
For unwise prayers you denied, sparing us the pain of desires not yet mature.
We were angry when you said No! … but we give thanks for making us wait and think and grow further into our life.
We thank you, dear God, unexpected trials that come our way, releasing within us capacities for patience and love …
For the ancient words of Scripture that burn with passion and invite us to the foot of the cross.
For Jesus of Nazareth, who finds the lost sheep and stills the raging sea …
We thank you, loving God, for a remarkable mercy that holds us when we’re hardly worth the holding.
We pray today for world leaders …
For women and men who bear arms …
For those who wear the robes of justice and those who wear the badge of enforcement …
We pray today for religious leaders and spiritual teachers …
For artists and poets …
Dancers and singers …
For those who entertain us … and make us laugh and cry.
We pray, O God …
That we might have good hearts … to see the world as you do, with mercy, love and hope …
That we might have good minds … ready to wrestle with tall ideas, thinking long and hard about what love means.
We pray that when hard times come our way, we’ll meet them with some dignity and peace of mind, for you are at work in all such things … near to us in the hours of our need.
We pray that we will keep our eyes on Christ … neither blinded by glitter and glamour nor discouraged by the troubles of the day.
We pray that the love of Christ will guide us through the days of our lives … until we come to stand before your great throne, O God, gathered with all of humanity and all the angels, in a new heaven and a new earth, where tears are no more, and the sun never sets.
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, on earth as it is in heaven.
With thanks to Ernest T. Campbell and his prayers; in them, I find much inspiration.
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