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Prayer List
Friends,
We continue to meditate on the Lord's Prayer.
In the gospel of Luke, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Jesus teaches them the prayer that we know as the Lord's Prayer. This gospel story intimates that prayer changes us - it grounds us in the knowledge of God's love for us; it gives us hope and a direction as we strive to engage in God's mission of loving and transforming the world into a place of abundance for all creation (cf. Luke 11:1-13).
As promised, as we continue our prayer mediation, I am offering examples of prayers/meditations on the various petitions of the Lord's Prayer.
Today's first example is again from a meditation on the Lord's Prayer by Pope Francis offered at the Orthodox Cathedral in Bucharest, Romania in 2019.
And when the evil that lurks at the doorway of our heart (cf. Gen 4:7) makes us want to close in on ourselves; when we feel more strongly the temptation to turn our back on others, help us again, Divine Parent*, for the essence of sin is withdrawal from you and from our neighbor. Help us to recognize in every one of our brothers and sisters a source of support on our common journey to you. Inspire in us the courage to say together: Our God--our Divine Parent. Amen.
*I've changed Father to Divine Parent to remind us that God has no gender.
The second example is from Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the inclination that we too do not have evil in our hearts. Deliver us from religious and national exceptionalism. Deliver us from addiction and depression. Deliver us from self-loathing. Deliver us from self-righteousness. Deliver us from high fructose corn syrup. Deliver us from a complete lack of imagination about where you are in our lives and how you might already be showing up. Deliver us from complacency. Deliver us from Complicity.
As you pray, I invite you to use your own words... think about who God is for you, how you experience God...
Feel free to share your thoughts or questions with me. Look forward to seeing what may happen when we create space for God's Spirit in our lives.
Blessings on this journey!
This week we pray for:
Cathy, the Iams' niece
Prayers for comfort and peace for the Iams family as they grieve the death of Cathy. She died last Monday after a long battle with cancer. Her memorial service will be held on August 27.
Caryl Slater
Continued prayers for healing and comfort for Caryl who is dealing with health challenges.
Barbara Mykkanen
Continued prayers for healing and comfort for Barb during her chemo treatment. We are grateful that her recent scan was clear.
Debbie Hostettler
Continued prayers, love and support for Debbie throughout the remaining chemo treatments.
Zsolt Tófalvi (59), friend of Pastor Enikö
Prayers for comfort and peace for the family and friends of Zsolt, a childhood friend of Pastor Enikö, who died of a stroke in Hungary on Saturday.
We pray for
- students of all ages preparing for a new year of learning; we especially pray for the COW students who are arriving to campus this week.
- teachers, professors, staff, and administrators who are preparing for students to return;
- those who are weighed down by grief, by losses that are hard to verbalize;
- for God’s comfort to surround those facing surgery, rehab, procedures, and difficult decisions;
- giving thanks for caretakers and all those who seek the wholeness of others;
- for courage to be vulnerable with ourselves and others in our search for wholeness;
- giving thanks for creation’s beauty and bounty, that reminds us of God’s majesty;
- giving thanks for laughter, for friendships that span time and space, for the little ones around us;
- for faith to carry us through the ups and downs of life, with support from our church family, and confidence that God’s steady presence will offer a new day, a fresh sunrise.
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