Sometimes we seem to need a break. Life conspires against us, we feel, and we are forced to make moral choices which are neither easy nor clear. And the break we desire may or may not come. In such circumstances, we may think we are isolated and alone. But God goes with us, every step of the meandering way. Therefore, to be strengthened for the circuitous journey, let us, with confidence, worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
We thank Thee, O Lord our God, for being with us and for us and sometimes over against us. Help us to perceive Thee in all the events of our lives, the good and bad, the happy and sad, the uplifting and the inspiring, and the deflating and the dismaying. Teach us how we may more clearly see Thee in all things, so that we may find direction on how and where to turn. We thank Thee also for all the people, present and past, who have been mentors and guides to us in our pilgrimage through life. Grant us wisdom to continue to seek assistance from those whom Thou hast sent to help us.
We pray one again for Jill Pellerin in her long and tortuous battle with cancer. Uphold her in those moments when she feels entirely engulfed by serious illness. Continue to supply her with the remarkable strength she has displayed through her prolonged assault from a remorseless disease. Enable us in our own ways to be allies with her in her battle, through our prayers for her, our concern for her wellbeing, and for our personal assistance in any way we can help her to defeat her relentless enemy.
We also pray as we have before for all the people of Haiti, against whom the forces of nature frequently seem to conspire. We remember those who died in the earthquake, those who have subsisted since then in homelessness, those who are threatened anew by starvation or disease, and those who now have been flooded out of the wretched hovels they had learned to call their homes. O God, we cannot understand how or why some people are so beaten down, and others, such as ourselves, live such relatively charmed lives. It is easy for us to live in affluence and security, and surely vexing for them to live in continuous catastrophes. Help us to help the helpless, and therefore to ease their burdens. We ask everything in Jesus’ name, who gave his life to help everyone in need. Now together we pray as he taught his disciples, saying, Our Father….