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

 Prayers of Church & Community, 6.23.24

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Holy God, Eternal Light, 

Thou art the way, the truth, and the life … 

You reveal vital things to us, dear God … you reveal yourself, in a million different ways …  the momentary glimpse we have of you in the corners of our mind … hints of holiness … notes of indescribable joy … comfort in the midst of our sorrows and sins … a way forward, O God, when all doors are closed … the rebuilding of life, the making of a new day, forgiveness, fortitude, faith … you keep us going, dear God, you lift us up, you walk with us, you sit beside us, you cry with us.

Holy God, Eternal Light, we pray for our trembling world … troubled by lies and false gods … broken by war and rumors of war … unsettled by fears and forebodings, promoted by people devoted to the destruction of Democracy.

Help us in our private lives, we pray, and in our lives together, to climb the high mountains of virtue and there to find the glories of your salvation, for all the world … to embrace the best of human goodness, and the still greater goodness of the Cross and the Empty Tomb, the mysteries and wonders of Christ our LORD.

Help us, we pray - to face the indignities of the day with the dignity of Christ … to bear patiently the faults and failures of others, even as you, O God, deal kindly with us, in our fractured and fearful moments. Remind us that we are precious in your sight - that our tears and our joys are deeply connected to everything you are.

In the waters of baptism, O God, give us eyes to see your glory … a world washed in your love, a world crowned with glory, and love abounding … 

Bless Markus Christian Thomas, we pray, his family and his future … thank you for this child, and the promise he holds in his wee little hands.

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.