I put this up yesterday, having been inspired been inspired by a conversation on an earlier
thread.
What with the crazy and the crazy yesterday, though, it got lost in the shuffle. Hopefully today will be a little calmer.
It's an open prayer; if you'd like to add a petition, please do. Just to keep it from being a total repost, I've added some petitions suggested by folks yesterday. (Sorry, cyclopatra; I'm too stupid to figure out how to work yours in.)
More below the fold.
Gracious and loving God known by many names and in many ways, we come before you today as a diverse and concerned community. We lift up our hearts in prayer to you, that:
- You might guide President Bush and Senator Kerry alike in the ways of peace, hope, love, and justice. Keep them safe this election season, and help them to be concerned with "the least of these" more than with those can afford to contribute to their campaigns. Help them to be peacemakers, and help them to lead this nation with fairness, equity, and a sense of your compassion.
- Our wounded nation may be made whole once more. Heal its divisions, comfort its grieving, bring to justice those who have oppressed and exploited its people through the legal and political system. Restore its environment, guard its democratic voting system, and enable it to work together for the greater good of all people, whether Americans or foreigners, rich or poor, liberal or conservative, religious or not. Bind us together in common unity, and help us to be a nation based in humility, generosity, and tolerance.
- That those in need may have those needs addressed. We are especially mindful of the survivors of those lost on 9/11, and those who have lost loved ones in Iraq, whether they be Americans, Iraqis, or citizens of other nations. We ask that you would shine your light on the poor, the homeless, the imprisoned, the addicted, the mentally ill, all those in need, that we might find the strength, the courage, the wisdom, and the resources to address their needs.
- We pray for healing in the Middle East. We pray for those people who have suffered from terrorism, especially Palestinians and Isrealis both. We pray for peacemakers that there voices may be heard over the din and help to break the deadlock.
We pray for those people with the gift of prophesy that they turn to your Will and become truthtellers. We pray that their lives will not be too upset by their compulsion to tell the truth and we pray that the truth reaches the ears of those who need to hear it.
We pray that the lies of the Evil One be exposed and that the power and principalities of this World are defeated. [from gordbrown]
- Help us to be instruments of peace. Help us to seek not to be understood, but to understand. [from A Texan in Maryland]
- Last week was the holiday of Yom Kippur, known as the "days of awe" and the most sacred and holy of Jewish holidays. It is a time of atonement and prayers for repentence and forgiveness for the wrongs one has done to others and to one's relationship to God.
The weight of the wrongs we have done in the world through this terrible war, the hubris and heartlessness of our President, the atrocities unleashed by the dogs of war, the killing of so many innocent Iraqi people, the maiming of thousands of American soldiers' bodies and lives, and the deaths of so many American servicepeople, the division of our nation and its plunging into a time of crisis, all brought on by concerted deception and malfeasance of those in control of our government-- it can seem too much to bear, too much to confront, too much to forgive, too much to heal.
I find it very, very hard to ask God for forgiveness for the hatred and anger I feel for our nation's leader. My frustration, sorrow and grief for our nation at this hour are almost beyond my capacity to pray for healing. Each of us feels so helpless and lone and unable to change the big messy picture. I pray that the aloneness I feel becomes a seed of love for action that honors truth, and that does not wither. God, give me strength not to let my anger and worry about myself and my family obscure my ability to see, and work toward, truth and justice in this creation. [from concernedamerican]
To these prayers, we add the following petitions, knowing of your grace and love for us...