O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray, to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God.
Book of Common Prayer
O God, in these ancient words, in the majestic sounds of choir and organ, and in the quiet recesses of our hearts, your Spirit finds us. The Psalmist proclaims that you always hear our prayers and that you will never withhold your love from us. Jesus promised his disciples that your Spirit would live within them, guiding them into an uncertain future, sustaining them, filling them with a kind of love that would change the world.
As the quiet of this sacred space settles around us, O God, we pray that your Spirit will find us. Calm the places within us where fear and anxiety have taken root. Stir those places that carry the spark of something that longs to flourish. Break into those places that have become fortresses of fear or anger or loneliness. Give new life to those places where hope that once felt alive and strong has been silenced by doubt and cynicism.
May your Spirit weave her way into all the places in our world where war and violence and inhumanity seem to have overcome all that is good and just. Bring comfort to all who are suffering in unimaginable ways. Bring wisdom and restraint to those who seek power and might. Give courage to those who are finding ways to stand firm and speak truth. Let love seep into all the nooks and crannies of our lives so that acts of kindness, large and small, work as leaven to transform relationships, families, communities, and even the world.
Here in this hour, may your Spirit seek out those in our midst who are carrying an extra load of worry or sorrow. Those facing a new medical crisis and those whose days are defined by chronic illness. Those who struggle silently with mental illness. Those whose days and hours are spent giving care. Those for whom grief is fresh and raw and those who live with a grief that has become their constant companion. May your Spirit come as a soothing balm to all who are hurting.
On this particular day even as we give thanks for mothers and celebrate motherhood, may your Spirit come as a gentle healing wind to all who may find this day painful and unsettling.
As our beloved First on Fifth community begins its second century planted on this plot of land in downtown Winston-Salem, may your Spirit enliven and empower us to move forward with an even bolder love for You, for one another, and for our city. May we be stretched to an even deeper and wider compassion as your Spirit opens our hearts to all who feel alone and marginalized and who wonder if they can trust that church could possibly offer the kind of community they long for. Teach us how to be the church to one another and how to be the church in a world that desperately needs to hear the Good News of love and mercy and justice.
Help us, O God, to follow more closely the Way of Jesus, in whose life, death, and resurrection we see the clearest embodiment of your Spirit. We offer the prayer he taught his disciples 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.