Search us, O God, and heal our hearts.
Heal us from all the worries and fears that we carry around…
From all the pain and heartache we suffer from…
From all the boredom and distraction that keeps us from feeling fully and thinking Deeply…
Heal our hearts from all the ways we that we live divided and fail to live wholeheartedly.
For our hearts need healing…
For schools and schoolchildren and schoolteachers—whether facing staffing cuts or Budget cuts or school shootings.
Heal us.
When political apathy keeps us from envisioning a blessed idea of the public or a robust vision of the common good—grounded in neighborly love.
Heal us.
On this Labor Day weekend—we are mindful of workers…
For those who work under long hours and harsh conditions and low wages that go unseen. The ones picking our crops, cleaning our offices, caring for the sick, educating our children, delivering our packages, cooking our meals.
Heal us.
For those who struggle to find a living wage and face rising costs of food and housing.
Heal us.
Search us, O God, and heal our hearts.
Give us lasting faith, when doubts linger.
Give us abiding hope, when despair knocks at the door.
Give us courage to act—in big and small ways, when complacency seems the safest choice.\
Give us whole hearts, that we may live and love more fully in a fragmented world.
We pray this in the name of Jesus—the pioneer and perfecter of our faith—who taught us to pray 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 trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
