June 11, 2020
A daily prayer during this COVID-19 crisis
During these difficult days, Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar and the members of the Extended Cabinet are sharing a daily prayer based on the Revised Common Lectionary for the week.
You are welcome to use these in worship or in your own devotions.
Today’s prayer
Psalm 116: 1-2 12-19 Romans 5: 1-8 Matthew 9:35-10:8 (9-23)
O God of light and love, the One who gives us life, and provides all the resources with which our lives can be meaningfully sustained; we stand in special need of an extra measure of wisdom, grace, and love. We perceive ourselves to be your human family, and we boast in the hope of your glory. Help us to see your love for all people, so that we may become more loving ourselves. Help us to be more understanding of human weakness, for we know that through the power of Christ, all things shall be made equal.
We confess that we are in trouble. We are needlessly hurting one another. We, therefore, join our hopes and concerns, in a common prayer to be nurtured in finding a solution to the problems we bring upon ourselves and others. We come as a hurt, ashamed, and frustrated child who might come to a parent. Forgive us for failing to make the ideal of justice, the way of life for all of your children. Forgive us for permitting the differences that make us a mosaic people, to become stumbling blocks of division. Forgive us for not always being successful at using our potential responsibly.
Show us O loving God, the way to mutual respect and trust. Show us the way to a perception of one another that transcends gender, race, of nationality. Enable us to see value in those different from us, equal to that which we envision for ourselves. Nurture us to a maturity that wants for others, that what we wish for ourselves. Nurture us in growth toward a more perfect expression of love to all people, in all places, at all times.
We pray for those whose lives have been so needlessly, and callously lost, and we care for those who have lost persons special to them. We pray for those stripped of human dignity. Through growing wisdom, enable us to find ways to help that which makes a difference, and may we be faithful to your intent.
Through penitent spirits help us to find ways to demonstrate the way of love through the expression of our own life. Remind us that suffering produces endurance; endurance produces character; and character produces hope. And that hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. May we find our sense of calling and purpose, and may our personal witness be an example for others.
It is in the Spirit of the One who showed us the great value and power in love that we offer this prayer together. Amen
My Life Flows On Refrain: No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing? My life flows on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation. I hear the clear, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. (Refrain) Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing? (Refrain) What though my joys and comforts die? I know my Savior liveth. What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night he giveth. (Refrain) The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing! All things are mine since I am his! How can I keep from singing? (Refrain)
My Life Flows On: The Faith We Sing pg. 2212. Words and Music Robert Lowry.
By Rev. Dr. David V. Calhoun, District Superintendent, Connecticut/Western Massachusetts