LORD God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, give us the eyes of faith … that we might see the glories of your love, the wonders of your creation, the beauty of humanity, and it’s sorrows and pains, too …
Give us the eyes of faith, we pray, to see the world as you might see it … in all of its goodness, and with all of its sin … to see the glory of those who love, and the horror of those who hate …
To see with the eyes of Christ, to see with the heart and the soul … to see your love within all things, your love moving hard and fast to set right what has gone wrong, to heal what has been broken, to restore what has been lost … a great love, O LORD, a boundless, fascinating love, repairing the broken wall, laying the foundation of a new world, charting a course to hope and peace … your great love, O God, at work in all things …
Be with us, we pray, to comfort us in our distress and pain, and to compel us to live in the Larger World …
Forgive us, O God, if we have used faith to shield ourselves from the sorrows of life … forgive us, O God, if have used the gospel to avoid seeing the need for engagement and sacrifice … forgive us, O God, if have pledged ourselves to follow Christ, but have gone our own way, instead, to serve our own interests. Forgive us, O God, we pray.
Strengthen us with the Holy Spirit … that we might love all the more … that we might give thanks with our entire being, heart, soul, mind and body … to give thanks for the blessings of life, and the opportunities of serving Christ, to be his ambassadors, to share his love, to create the world for which he gave his life.
Be with us, we pray … guard and guide our loved one - our families, our friends … guard and guide our towns and cities, we pray … guard and guide communities of faith - whatever their creed, or how they say it - may the quest for truth never cease, may the effort to live in the Larger World never be set aside, may the love we all desire, may the peace we want, be given away in order to be found … for in the sharing, all is made new, in the giving, we receive … in the building up of others, we ourselves are made new … as you have given unto us in 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. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
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