Pentecost Prayers of the People

God of wind and flame,

blow into our lives. Ignite the fire of hope, fan the flames of possibility.

Transform us into a people who share your love with a world in pain,

a people who proclaim your hope into a world given to despair,

a people who live as though the world can be changed into the kingdom that is to come.

Baptizing God, who calls us to be a baptizing community,

you speak to us in many languages over the course of our lives:

the burbles and laughs and wails of infancy,

the indistinct speech and partial words of toddlerhood,

the strange syntax and slang of late childhood and adolescence,

the full language of adulthood,

the quavering speech and muted tones of old age.

Speak to us in the language that we need to hear today,

hear us in the language that we speak.

God of many languages.

You sing the language of joy with us, you join us in the dance of life.

Hear all of your children who sing and dance and praise this morning,

those who celebrate new life with all the possibilities of the future,

those who celebrate relationships, both the new and exciting and the long-term yet still exciting,

those for whom the wonder of life fills their being to the limit,

may they hear your voice joining in the singing and the shouting...

...time of silence...

And yet, God of life,

you also speak the languages of pain, of sorrow, of fear, of despair.

Hear all your children who speak, who wail, who whisper in these languages this day:

those who find themselves in hospital beds, or waiting anxiously beside those beds,

those who gather to say farewell to one who is traveling, or one who is moving,

those who gather at graveside to say that longer farewell,

those who worry about where the next meal, or the next rent cheque, will come from,

those who live in places where peace is just a word, a faint hope, a distant dream,

May all those whose language is rent by pain hear you lamenting with them,

...time of silence...

God of Pentecost, God who speaks with many tongues, God who makes God-self known in many ways,

fill us with Your Spirit this and every morning,

hear the prayers we share using many different languages,

we pray in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ, whose life,

death and resurrection show us the path to the Kingdom.

We pray as people of the Spirit,

who lights our fires, who fills our lungs with air,

who blows us out into the world to live and serve.

Amen.