Sunday, January 9, 2011

January 9, 2011, Prayers of the People

Eternal God, we thank you for the grace to live in the light of Christ.
For the hope that encourages us, because Christ is born within us.

For the days ahead of us, O God,
Guide us we pay.
Shape our values and give us holy purpose for our work and for our leisure.

We pray for the environment, O God.
Your creation … our Garden.
You have given us the world and all of its life-forms, to care for all of it, with our hands and toil, our minds and creativity, and most of all, our love – our love for all creatures, great and small … and our care for the air we all breath, the water we drink, the food we eat …

Today, O God, we pray for prosperity.
Not simply for our own pleasure, or to be number one, or any other such foolish notions, but that we might have more opportunity to be generous in our giving.
Bless our work, O God, and grant to us what’s needed that we might apply ourselves with diligence, creativity and imagination to make our work the best it can be.

Bless those who manage our investments …
Bless the banks and money markets of our land …
That all the tools of recovery might be used to sustain our democracy … to ease the burdens of the poor … to put people back to work … to help those who can’t work …

Bless our CEOs and boards of directors.
May they set their sights on just profits and work-place safety and good benefits.
May the greed of Wall Street be tamed.
The temptations of ostentation be avoided.
May the kindness of the human heart be celebrated.
May good jobs, fair jobs, be their goal.

We pray for our nation … and its President.
We pray for all the new legislators …
We pray for our governor, Jerry Brown …
We pray for all of our politicians … the burdens they bear … burdens of leadership, and the many temptations that come their way …

Especially, we pray Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her family; we pray for the other families who lost loved ones … and we pray for the young man who did the shooting …

Watch over us we pray in the remains of the day.
Keep us in the good cheer of 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.

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