1.29.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

O LORD our God, we pray for wisdom, to think things through.

We pray for guidance, to act wisely.

We pray for the courage to shine the light of truth on gun violence and police brutality.

O LORD our God, all around us, people are dead … or maimed in body and soul, for the rest of their lives … families marked by loss, sorrow, anger, fear, regret, and loneliness.

We pray that our nation will be able to craft reasonable and responsible laws … that children can go to school safely, and adults can go to the mall, or a dance studio, and come home again, safe and sound.

We pray for the cities of Monterey Park and Alhambra … the Asian-Amercian community … all who’ve suffered loss …

We pray for the city of Memphis … we pray for Tryre Nichols, his family and friends, for the community, for the churches of Memphis, the police and city administrators … 

We continue to pray for our nation, and the nations of the world. We pray that leaders will be wise in the ways of peace, and determined to defend freedom when some would take it away.  

We pray for our loved ones, in all the comings and goings of their lives … we pray for ourselves, for our health and our well-being, in body and in soul. Help us along the way, dear God … to know more of Christ, to know more of ourselves and those around us, and what it means to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. 

All of this, 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. 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. 

1.22.23 Prayer of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

The turn of a page,

The twist of an age.

Time runs on.

And the day is won.

O LORD our God.

Good is your name.

And faithful you are.

In love the same.

We cannot be but who we are.

Along the road ever so far.

You are the faithful companion.

In canyons dark and shining mountain.

With gates of gold.

Laughter never old.

Hope and light.

Shining bright.

Stir our hearts this day dear God.

Bring to life our weary sod.

Lift us to our feet, we pray.

To dance and sing and ever sway.

For the sake of love and all the folk.

We claim the story of Christ our hope.

The light of the world.

A peace unfurled.

Bless us, we pray, to stay the way.

In faith, and hope, and never betray.

The truth, the life, that belongs to all.

And grows large and never grows small.

For our loved ones we offer up our hearts.

That life in all of its fits and starts.

Will be good and light.

And faithfully right.

And for our blighted and struggling world.

We lift our hearts and reach for a word.

To sing a song of praise and peace.

For all the children, that war may cease.

All of this, 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. 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. 

1.15.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Eternal God, we give thanks for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … we celebrate, his work and vision, his courage and honesty … the family who supported him, those who worked with him … his voice, a clarion call to justice, a message for a troubled nation stumbling in its own history … a nation plagued with pride, O God, unable to tell the whole truth … 

Dear God, we give thanks for all those who continue the work, who raise the call of Christ, to seek first the Kingdom of God … who point the way to healing and health, wholeness and hope … all who declare the Gospel, loud and clear: “Here is the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Here is the path, here is the right and good.” May their voices never be stilled, and may the ears of our nation be opened all the more to hear the truth of peace and justice.

Holy God, we give thanks for churches, great and small, churches that embody the love of Christ, churches that stand firm for the great truths of faith, hope, and love … to welcome all to the Table of Christ … to welcome all to the waters of baptism … to give freely to the world what you, dear God, have so freely given to the Church of Jesus Christ, and to each one of us - the salvation of our souls, and our daily bread.

We pray now for our loved ones … for family and friends …

And for ourselves, O God, many a burden upon our heart … things that distress us, frighten us, shame us, bewilder us … O LORD, our God, we are so complicated, but you know us through and through, your love for us is without end … in the end, O God, we are yours, for this life, and for the life to come …

All of this, 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. 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. 

1.8.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Eternal God, creator of the Heavens and the Earth, your hand is upon us, in ways both gentle and firm … 

Where’er life should take us, you are there … in our tears and in our laughter, in the rising of the sun for a glorious day, in the storm clouds of loss and death … 

So we give thanks, dear God … for your abiding presence, your ceaseless mercies, woven in the darkest fabrics of time and experience - woven in every broken heart, into every lost dream, into ever tear of despair, into the darkness of grief and fear … 

We lay our lives before you, Gentle Mother of our souls … you see the darkest stuff of our imagination, you know the contours of every loss and all our rage … and never do you turn us away, never do you close the door of hope … and always you help us along the way.

In your mercy, you remind us of our pride and our anger, our foolish decisions and improper thoughts - these souls of ours, O God, can be a storm of raging self-love and violence. So we pray for mercy - not that your mercy is ever withheld, but that we’re too blind and stubborn to touch your mercy. Forgive us, we pray; don’t give up on us; stay with us, for as long as it takes.

With hope and fear, O God, we pray for Ukraine and Russia … China and Taiwan … Israel and Palestine …  

We pray now for our loved ones … [prayers, as noted ….]

We pray for our communities and those who lead them … we pray for Westminster Presbyterian Church, for the Presbyterian Church, our colleges and our seminaries … in these changing and uncertain times, give us the vision of Christ, that we might more thoroughly devote ourselves to his purpose, and be gentle and gracious in our ways … knowing full well, O God, that we can only do so much, but in so doing, what we can, you add the deeps of eternity to whatever we undertake in the name of your beloved Christ, because this church is important to you, and each one of us, O God, the apple of your eye, and to you we belong, now and forever more.

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. 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. 

1.1.23 Prayers of Church & Community, Westminster Presbyterian Church Pasadena

 Eternal God, to whom all things belong, from whom all love proceeds, we give thanks that you are the God of love woven into the fabric of time -  in the best of it, and in the worst of it … in our joys, and in our sorrows … in the suffering of millions even now, displaced by war and climate change … you’re heart, too, is broken, by the sins and sorrows of humankind.

It’s almost too much for us to comprehend, but we pay attention, dear God, because attentiveness is our task - to be fully human, fully aware, eyes open, ears listening to the children of our world crying out to us for justice and peace …  

Help us, we pray, to give priority to love and kindness, mercy and mindfulness … to be faithful to Christ, to be creative and playful, prayerful and thoughtful, to be the church alive and full of life and hope … in such times, O God, as these, changing times, tables overturned, the old ways disappearing, remind us that you are at work in all things for good … Christ is our companion … the Holy Spirit guides and directs our steps, reveals new pathways, new procedures and new practices … help us, we pray, to resist the temptation of Lot’s wife, the temptation to look backward, the temptation to give the past more honor than it deserves … to be those who look to the future, who look for you, O God, in the pathways before us, for you are always and forever the God of Tomorrow.

We pray now for loved ones… for family and friends … our children and grandchildren, our parents and grandparents … our brothers and sisters, neighbors and co-workers … all around us, O LORD … and for them we pray.

We pray for Ukraine and Russia, for Europe and NATO - we pray for the air and water, the earth and the animals … we pray for a just peace.

We pray for Taiwan and China … we pray for the nations of the Pacific Rim … 

We pray for Westminster, O LORD … we pray for our elders and our members, for our friends around the world, who join with us via YouTube - we pray a blessing upon them all.

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. 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.