July 2020 archive

May 31, 2020

PASTORAL PRAYER Come, Holy Spirit, come. On this Pentecost Sunday, come into our lives, into our midst and into our world. Come breathing peace, and whisper to each troubled soul, each wounded body, each broken heart, each raging spirit. Help us to breathe in your reassuring presence, your quiet strength, your unfailing love, your mysterious …

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May 17, 2020

PASTORAL PRAYER Holy and loving God, they reminded us that things change, but we already knew that. We are living in a world and in a time when things are changing all around us, and at a pace that leaves our heads spinning. Truth be told, on our good days, it feels like change; other …

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May 3, 2020

PASTORAL PRAYER Holy God, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the pain and suffering in the world and in our lives, and some days it’s a struggle to not give in to that. Each of us carries with us the hurts and fears, wounds and weariness of our lives as well of those we love. …

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April 26, 2020

Pastoral Prayer Creating God, we marvel at the bounty and beauty of the world you have made: the majesty of mountains and fluttering antics of hummingbirds, the strength of elephants and the fragility of a flower petal, the searing heat of the desert and the frigid cold of blizzards, the immensity of sequoias and the …

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April 19, 2020

Pastoral Prayer Holy One, you came and spoke peace to your followers as they sat together behind a locked door, nursing the wounds of how they had failed you in your hour of need, jumping at every unexpected sound, frightened that the killing might not yet be finished. True, Mary had told them of your …

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April 5, 2020

Pastoral Prayer Holy and beloved God, we need you. We can hardly remember a time when, as a community, a nation and a world, we’ve needed you more. People are sick and dying. Hospitals are overflowing, and being erected in parks while convention centers and hotels are being transformed into more beds to care for …

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March 29, 2020

Pastoral Prayer Holy God, like the Psalmist, we cry out to you from the depths. These are trying times, unsettling times, strange and lonely times, and we come to you for healing and holding, for wisdom and patience, for trust and hope. We would never have dreamed that a virus could bring the world to …

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March 22, 2020

Pastoral Prayer Holy and beloved God, there are so many ways in which we have never been in this place before, and honestly, if we’re never here again, that would be just fine with us. We’re unfamiliar worshiping through our computers and phones, and we miss the friends we usually sit beside, the handbells and …

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