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

 Prayers of Church & Community, Nov. 24, 2024

Westminster Presbyterian Church

All glory, laud, and honor 

to you, Redeemer, King, 

to whom the lips of children 

made sweet hosannas ring. 

You are the King of Israel 

and David's royal Son, 

now in the Lord's name coming, 

the King and Blessed One.

Holy God, Eternal Light … speak tenderly to us, we pray … our hearts are weary, our souls heavy laden … our minds challenged with claims and counter-claims of truth and lies, prosperity and poverty, who’s in and who’s out … what’s right and what’s wrong.

We hardly know where to stand, dear God … we confess our faith in the good words of the gospel … but our hearts are often far away … , far away from your glory, your reality, your goodness, your mercy … forgive us, we pray, and do not abandon us … be patient with us, we pray, and do not turn away.

We lift up to you, O LORD, the needs of our world … we cannot pray for peace on earth, for such is not possible in this realm of time and sin … but we pray for a lessening of war … we pray that women and men of good conscience will tamp down the flames of fear and greed that drive the engines of war … 

We pray for our nation … in these days of transition … we pray for the President-elect and those whom he calls to serve … we pray for the Senate and the House, we pray for the courts of the land … we pray that the light of justice not grow dim, but burn all the brighter in our hearts … 

Always, dear God, we pray for the children who bear the brunt of our foolish ways … who pay the price of our sins … little ones who carry the crosses we fashion with our pride and prejudice. Forgive our warring ways, we pray … the ancient hatreds we harbor in our souls.

We pray for loved ones, eternal God … watch over them in their endeavors, their dreams, their hopes and desires …  we pray for our church … may it’s light burn bright, may its word be true.

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.