PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE

Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love, you created us as curious and inquisitive beings,
and so we try to understand everything, to have all our questions answered
Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love, you also call us to live with mystery and uncertainty.
So help us, we pray, to be at peace with the questions we can not answer.
As we live with the complexities of the world you have created and are creating,
grant us the ability to trust those who know more than we do,
the courage to keep seeking new answer, even if they may be uncomfortable,
and the wisdom to know that some things will remain a mystery, beyond our understanding.
God of Grace that overflows, of Love that fills us up,
help us live with respect in creation, keep us searching for the best way forward, keep us humble we pray.
And lead us forward into the next steps of the journey we share with the rest of your creation.
Amen

For September 8, Creation Time 1

PRAYER FOR AWARENESS
God who has created...
we give thanks for the world in which we live,
we celebrate the big and small miracles that surround us.
God who is creating...
keep us from the assumption that the work of creation is complete,
open our eyes to see the new things that are emerging around us.
God who is re-creating...
help us see the need for renewal and revitalization throughout creation,
keep us open to be renewed and changed ourselves.
God who calls creation good...
give us the wisdom, the strength, the courage to live with respect for all of creation.
Always. Amen.

Christ Candle for Creation Time

In the beginning God spoke into the chaos and said: “Let there be light”
And there was light.
We light this candle to remind us that the light called forth by God continues to shine in God’s Creation
As we watch it glow may we grow in wisdom and love.
As people of God we centre ourselves for worship

For September 1, 2024. Proper 17B

OPENING PRAYER
God you invite us into your presence.
You call us to climb the hill, to sing and listen and pray as we celebrate Your presence.
God, in a world where we spend so much time working hard,
you invite us to pause, to take a break so we can sing and listen and pray as we sit in Your presence
As we sing and listen and pray this day,
refresh and renew us, prepare us to go out an continue to do the work of love.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who reminds us that we are loved, who calls us to rest in You, and who encourages us to pray saying...

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
God sometimes we have trouble feeling worthy.
We know the mistakes we make. We know the times we have missed the mark.
We may use lofty words and share great hopes,
but to be honest our actions don’t always measure up to those words.
God of Grace, in those moments when we feel unworthy of being in Your presence,
on those days when we are just too aware of how we fail to be who we could be,
when our words and actions just don’t match...
forgive us, renew us, remind us that we are loved.
God is gracious, loving and forgiving. When we stumble or miss the mark God offer us forgiveness and a re-start. When we are sure that we are unworthy God looks at us and calls us beloved children, worthy just as we are, without one plea. This is Good News!
Thanks be to God! Amen

Prayer for Patience -- to go with readings for Ascension Day

Source of Life, we stand with the first disciples: watching and listening and wondering.
What do we do next? Is this the time to act?
We hear you tell them, and us, to wait, that you will fill them with the power of the Spirit.
Then it will be the time to act.
Waiting is hard. We see the need to act fast. We want to share Good News.
We don’t think we can afford to wait.
God who acts on your own time, God who calls us to listen for your voice,
help us to listen and to wait.
Open our eyes and ears and hearts so that we can follow where you lead rather than head off in our own
direction.
God who WILL move us forward, who WILL lead us into the future,
grant us the strength to act when the time is right, the wisdom to know when the time is right, and the patience to wait until the time is right.
And then when it is time.
May we go out to be faithful witnesses to your love, grace, and hope. Amen.

Prayers at the Foot of the Cross (2024)

God who promises to be with us in life, in death, in life beyond death,
you are with us in our times of triumph: singing and dancing and celebrating,
you are with us in our time of disaster and devastation:
sharing our grief, holding us up, carrying us forward.

This week we join Christians from all over the world in a journey,
we go from triumphant entry and waving palm branches
to a special meal in an upper room
to arrest, trial, conviction, execution.
Disaster has come.
And still you are there, even as Jesus the Christ takes his last breath.

This night as we tell the story we remember the disasters of the world.
Even as we trust in the promise that life and love may yet win,
we remember the seemingly overwhelming power of death and fear,
anger and destruction, to devastate so many lives near and far.

Hear us, Gracious God, as we lift up those whose life may have more disaster than triumph this night:
the people of Gaza, Israel, Palestine –
caught in a seemingly endless cycle of violence, fear, and conflict;
the people of Ukraine – dealing with invasion and war;
he people of Haiti – living in a time of social upheaval;
all those other places in the world where violence is the norm –
even though thy don’t make it onto the headlines anymore;
those in various countries where food is scarce;
those neighbours closer at hand who worry where the rent will come from,
or have to choose between food and utilities;
our 2SLGBTQIA+ neighbours near and far who are attacked, despised, cast out for trying to be true to who You created them to be;
Gracious God we lift up all those who have be pushed to the margins,
all those who feel broken by the world
may all your beloved children feel you meeting them in their time of disaster.

God of Love, the story we have just hear reminds us that love can be hard.
We hear how Jesus, who commands us to love,
challenged the powers of his world who found his understanding of the world to be a threat, knowing that it would likely end in a torturous death on a cross.
We are reminded that the powers of empire and control will strike back against those who are different, those whose vision for life calls for sacrifice and change.
Hear us as we pray for those who are unjustly arrested, persecuted, even killed
simply for trying to change the world...,
simply for trying to live into your vision for a world renewed.

Source of life and love, on this day of disaster, devastation and death,
we pray for the time when triumph, love, and life have the final victory.
We pray for a world that is broken in so many ways,
looking ahead to the promise of being made whole again.
Give us all, we pray, the courage to work through the broken-ness,
to face the devastation head-on,
to challenge those things that work against Your Kingdom,
so that we might be agents of change,
helping to bring wholeness,
carriers of Your love for the world.

We pray in the name of Jesus,
our teacher and guide,
our rock and redeemer,
whose passion for the Kingdom knows no bounds.
Amen.

Resources for Feb 11, 2024 -- Transfiguration Sunday

PRAYER FOR & ASSURANCE OF GRACE
Source of Life, as people who seek to follow your Way, we echo the old song:
Open our eyes that we may see, glimpses of truth...
Sometimes we see clearly, sometimes our eyes are veiled,
sometimes we only see the whirlwind, not the gift that lies hidden in its midst
sometimes we only see the clay jar, not the treasure that it holds.
Help us see beyond the obvious, help us see where you are active in our world,
and forgive us for the times we are oblivious, when we choose not to see.
In Grace-filled Love God continues to open our eyes, to help us see, to reveal God’s power and promise. Through God’s Grace we can see beyond the veil. Through God’s love and mercy our blindness is forgiven and removed. And so we continue to sing:
Open our eyes, illumine us, Spirit Divine. Amen

COMMISSIONING:
We came together, we sang, we prayed, we looked for God’s presence.
Now we go out to serve, to pray, to look for God’s activity.
As you live and serve, may you let God’s love flow through you into the world at large.
As we live and love, may our eyes be opened to see God in friend and neighbour.
So go now with open eyes and open hearts. Go trusting that God,
      who has created and is creating;
      who is revealed in Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh;
      who works in each of us through the Holy Spirit
Is with you each step of life’s journey.
Thanks be to God. Amen