Generous God -

We are moved by the mysterious work you do in us.
We thank you for the radiant presence of your Beloved Son, Jesus –
Whose transformative love, bears us up steep slopes –
Toward new vantage points.

We open now, as Moses did, to Your hand that guides –
Your heart that moulds -
Your mind that stills - as you reveal yourself in your infinite gifts to us.

We thank you for laughter-filled hearts that burst with joy at your creation.
We thank you for progressively more days - ecstatic with sunshine.
We thank you for trim garden borders –
Draped with cricket green hellebores and all afire with jubilant yellow forsythia -
And we thank you for walks, infused with wisps of sugary spring fragrance.
We thank you for goldmine consignment stores –
Louis Armstrong, the Vancouver Art Gallery,
And celebrations of silken, buttery chocolate.
We thank you for the safe return of Josephine Shih to her family in Richmond this past week
And we thank you for this place of refuge –
With its pulse of inspired ministries that honour you.

Help us, Ever-present God, to make sense of this bruised world.

We pray for a positive and lasting outcome for the Planned Peace Summit between Israel And Palestine.

We pray for the people of Iraq whose lives continue to be rent by the violence and uncertainty of war.

We pray the federal M.P’s who will review the Anti-Terrorism Act will be imbued with a unfailing sense of justice.

Bless our seniors, whose interest in the wider world, shrinks in subtle degrees.
Help us to furnish them with meaning-drenched moments -
As they grow dim, and depart gently from us.

We ask Your blessing upon those whose lives are obscured by heavy clouds:
And we urge them to take solace in You.

We pray, now, our individual, silent prayers, for those who would benefit from your vital care:

 

Help us Compassionate God, to centre our lives in a continuous & glorious relationship with you.
Help us to integrate that alliance into our daily living.
We humbly ask that you forgive us -
When we fall short of Your expectations for us -
When we fall short of our expectations for ourselves.

As we reach, to turn from our shortcomings -
Help us to recognize your face in silver linings.
Help us to hear your voice, in the clatter of a toddler’s running feet.
Most importantly, help us to convey Christ’s light to the darkest recesses of less fortunate lives.

 

Fill us, Enduring God, with grace -
And acceptance of Your life’s purpose for us –
That we might be the agents of Peace you wish us to be.

As a community of the faithful –
Let us be conduits of Your love.
Bring us now to Your place of fulfillment.
Bring us now to Your place of Peace – in Jesus -
Who taught us to pray:

Loving God, who art in heaven ...