Prayers of the People

Loving God,

On this day, we sit before you in concern - concern for one another, for our very lives, and for the life of the world. Help us to pray from this place of concern, to be called in our prayers, that we might be a part of the very prayers we make.

We give you thanks for your constant love - for your care and concern for creation, for the all ways you are present to our lives. We thank you for delicious food, for rain, and laughter in the eyes and voices of children. Turn us toward these gifts - these delights - that we might live in the present moment, to give you thanks and to live as the persons you have created in your image.

We come to you to ask for help that your grace, mercy, and love might be made known to us in an even deeper way right in the pain of our own struggles. We pray for those who are struggling financially - those of us, those we know, and those we hear about - who are on the verge of foreclosure, who have lost jobs, who don't know where their next meal will come from. We pray for children who are ravaged by these realities but can barely affect what is so strongly affecting them. Help us to be a part of the prayers we make today.

We pray for those who are struggling with sickness and death -those of us, those we know, and those we hear about - who are living and dying in hospitals, who are on the battlefield, who are bedridden at home, perhaps in isolation. We pray for people who are living what is true for us all - an awareness of human fragility. Yet even in our fragility, we are more powerful than we know in your love. Turn our meager resources into a great abundance, that we might be a part of the prayers we make today - that we might share your love with those who are suffering.

We pray for a turbulent world, for nations where promise, violence, and confusion all intermingle. Today we especially pray for the Middle East and for North Africa, where people are protesting en masse, longing for justice and for fragility to be empowered. We pray for Egypt and the decisions that lie ahead, for Bahrain and Libya where protesters have met strong violence this week, for Yemen, for Tunisia, for Iran, for Jordan, and for Iraq and Afghanistan. Though it may feel that the people there are a world away, they are our brothers and sisters. Help us to love them and to stand alongside them. Help us to be a part of the very prayers we make.

We are your people, O God. Though we are fragile and finite, we are people made in your image and likeness. We are your beloved people who live in a beloved world. So now as your children, we are bold to pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, 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, the power, and the glory forever.

Amen.

-A Prayer of Pasadena Presbyterian Church