Prayer on the Margins

Fourth Sunday in Advent, 2008

2009-06-03T15:52:00.001-07:00

Advent Awe

Gracious God,
Source of our song of praise,
You open us to the wonder and beauty of your presence.
Our common voices chant our gratitude and longing.

From ancient days you promised your love and presence.
Our ancestors reminisced of your kindness and care.
Prepare our generation for a new awareness of your mercy.

Today we are pregnant still with hope for a waiting world.
We long for your face to turn us away from violence and despair.
We wait for the day when unity replaces the brokenness of war.

Birth in us the fearlessness to live a message of peace.
Birth a new hope in our children living in our fragile marriages.
Birth in us a loving care for the poor and lonely.

Reveal your face of love to those hiding from prejudice and stereotypes.
Reveal your presence to heal our sick in nursing homes and hospitals.
Reveal your kindness to those without joy and who are too lonely to pray.

Break through our arrogance and greed and free us from fear.
Break open our stubbornness of heart and self-sufficiency.
Break through the waters of our baptism and birth us again in your Spirit.

God, in our waiting days of Advent,
You challenge us not to be afraid.
Like Mary, we bear the Word to a fragile world.
Open our hearts in joy and loosen our tongues in shouts of jubilation.
We wait in loving hope until we see you as you are.

Amen

Third Sunday in Advent, 2008

2009-06-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

Advent Abundance

Gracious and merciful God,
Your love flows forth in lavish concern for us.
Your tidings speak forever of your abundant love.

In these Advent days,
Walk with us through the darkness toward a new dawn.
Take us by the hand through the uncertain shadows,
So we may find ourselves in your Light and Love.

Your prophet John pierced the doubt of his followers.
His testimony remains our source of challenge and comfort.
His baptisms still prepare us for the fire of your Spirit.

Anoint the brokenhearted with your oil of gladness and forgiveness.
Anoint your people bandaged in self-loathing and loss.
Anoint the feet of the strangers in our midst and welcome them.

Wrap your beloved in a shroud of hope and protection.
Wrap our elderly in an embrace of patience and peace.
Wrap your arms around our friends who cannot love themselves.

Clothe us in robes of salvation and harmony.
Clothe our naked friends who are lost among addictions and disease.
Clothe our nations in lasting and comforting peace.

God, you plant a garden of justice for those in need.
In our Advent prayer,
Bring your love to the poor and sprout hope for all people.
We rejoice heartily and forever,
In Christ who is the joy of our souls now and for all eternity.

Amen

Second Sunday of Advent, 2008

2009-06-03T15:49:00.002-07:00

Advent Awakening

O God of tender voice,
We turn our attention to you in these Advent days,
For your concern pierces the ages,
Your words tell us again of your comfort and care.

You remind us of your ancient promise,
That nothing hinders your love for your people.
You shepherd us when we stray
and protect us when we are afraid.

You gave voice to your prophet John, who speaks to us today,
His hearty zeal still points us to your coming and salvation.
His attention to you teaches us to let go of our selfish ways.

Awaken us to your presence when we feel abandoned and alone.
Awaken us to your love when apathy
has lulled us into unfaithful sleep.
Awaken us to the sound of your voice
in our children who depend on us.

Challenge us to silence our words of revenge and neglect.
Challenge us when we rely on our own powers of unhealthy addictions.
Challenge us along the rugged path of our families’ broken relationships.

Prepare us to see beyond our bounty
to those who starve for food and housing.
Prepare us to gaze on people lost
in desserts of disease and mental illness.
Prepare us to look further
along our rough roads of loneliness and poverty.

God of everlasting love,
From our celebration of Word and Sacrament,
Give us true heavenly food and gather us in your arms.
Awaken our lives in the promise of Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen

First Sunday of Advent 2008

2009-06-03T15:49:00.001-07:00

Advent Art

Potter God,
From your creative love and caring hands,
We emerged in this world with joyful faces and faithful hearts.
From the earth we were reminded of your heavenly breath.

Your ancient prophets molded and shaped us, too.
Their sharp-edged words carved in us purpose for our being.
Their strong shouts chiseled a path toward our true home.

Today we proclaim Jesus’ gumption and urgency.
His words teach us that you are not finished with us yet.
You reach across the centuries and wipe sleep from our eyes.

Call us to wake up because hatred has stopped our breathing.
Call us to see anew because cataracts of prejudice cover our vision.
Call us to listen again to the despair among our ill and dying.

Rouse in us at cockcrow a desire to live each day in truth.
Rouse in our weariness a new energy to work for justice.
Rouse in your beloved a new respect for those burdened by hardship.

Create patience in us when our relationships wear thin.
Create peace among us when violence overtakes us.
Create praise on our lips when human words divide us.

God of our longing,
You continue creating us in your image.
In these weeks of Advent, wake us up from our heart-numbing routine.
Carve in us a home of gratitude, love and courage.
We wait and watch for you alone.
Amen

Palm Sunday

2009-06-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

April 5, 2009

Jesus,
I come humbly before you.
I bend my knee in your name.
I offer my life to you.

You offered your life to us in real human suffering.
You did not run or turn away or hide.
You let go of what was most precious, life itself.

You faced mockery, abandonment and agony.
You faced inevitable death on a cross.
You gave us your body and your heart.

Your followers denied you and some betrayed you.
Some fled and some fell asleep.
You were scourged and flogged.
You died, your body oiled, and friends buried you.

In this deep and dark story we call you King.
You rose up from the grave and beyond our comprehension.
Now in your new life we find our own.

Accept the pain of all who follow.
Receive the demons that drive us into despair.
Take us by the hand when we lose our way.

On your cross we die to ourselves and find new life.
Your cross in our bodies brings us forgiveness.
Jesus, remember your people.

Amen

Fifth Sunday of Lent

2009-06-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

John 12:20-33
March 29, 2009

Jesus,
I cling to what I think is certainty.
I really do not like change.
I realize nothing lasts forever.
Change forces me to hold tight to what I know.
Fear takes hold of me because I live too comfortably.

You promise me if I let go you will not abandon me.
You tell me I am similar to the grain of wheat.
It thinks it is enough to stay as it is.
But it must fall to the earth.
It must die.
It must become something more.

Fashion me in the pattern of wheat.
Pry open my life from living my self-sufficient ways.
Encourage me to abandon my cares in your love for me.
Help me die the deaths that stifle my growth.
Live in me so I can become something more.

Jesus,
These Lenten days show me my stubbornness.
They teach me how I am emotionally bottled up.
The Scriptures teach me to trust in your dying and rising.

Release me from my pre-occupation.
Show me what you have planned for me.
Help me see my own growth from the bud of letting go.

Then I will be free to serve.
As I fall to the ground like wheat to the earth.
I will grow for others.

Open my heart and teach me to serve people.
Help me grow toward the light of love.

Amen

Fourth Sunday of Lent, 2009

2009-06-03T15:21:00.002-07:00

March 22, 2009

Jesus,
I try to bear the weight of life on my own shoulders.
My heart becomes numb even to my own needs.
My body bends to the earth.
My spirit shrinks into selfishness.

When I am stooped down and bent low I finally look up at you.
You come to raise me up.

Help me believe in your light because our bodies are bent over in self-concern.
I want to cast my eyes beyond the darkness of the ground before me.
Open a path so I may find my way beyond the shadows of uncertainty.
I want to walk released from the shackles of my questions and concerns

Everyday I see how struggles wear people down.
I see the addict bent down white knuckling sobriety.
I witness the mother on her knees for the lack of insurance for her sick child.
I listen to the couple begging for one more night in a shelter.

Jesus,
Lift up our world torn apart with indifference.
Lift up our weariness and discouragement when daily life challenges us.
Lift us out of our dark cave of fear.
Lift up our thin patience and weary bodies.
Lift us out of chaos with your healing love.

In these journey days of Lent restore our relationships.
Help us all find love again.

Out of love you came to us.
Out of love you offered your life for us.
Out of love you died so we might learn how to live.

Jesus,
You were lifted on the cross for all to see.
In this vision we are all lifted up beyond the worries that wear us down.
You are light for our way.
Show us mercy and reach down and heal us.

Amen

Third Sunday of Lent

2009-06-03T15:21:00.001-07:00

March 15, 2009

Jesus,
I scramble to make sense of my life.
Clutter fills my heart with excuses so to hide my fear.
I know I am not living the life you are inviting me into.

You cleansed the holy temple of excess and greed.
You stormed their prayer overturning priorities and control.
You promised that all would be rebuilt if destruction came.

People did not understand that your body would be raised.
Their questions and resentments overwhelmed them.
Human nature revealed itself to you so clearly.

Jesus,
Clear away the clutter in my heart, the chaos of finding myself.
Clear from the temple of my thoughts, the despair that gets me down.
Clear away my belief that I am all alone on this journey.

Overturn the violence I do to myself.
Overturn the cruelty I do to others by my words and judgments.
Overturn the brutality of cultural racism, greed and ignorance.

Stop our nation’s bloodshed.
Stop our arrogant thoughts and actions.
Stop the violence we impose on our neighbors.

As much as we try we cannot do any of these things on our own.
Help us respond to the prompting of your loving Spirit.
Help us sort out what is to remain in relationship with you.
Help us to move beyond our own reliance.

Jesus,
Calm us as we pray.
Calm us because we worship as your Body on earth.
You invite us under the protection of your holy temple, under the guidance of love.
Amen

Second Sunday of Lent 2009

2009-06-03T15:20:00.001-07:00

March 8, 2009

Jesus,
I need a new perspective.
I want to see you and listen to your voice.
Lead me to a new place where you open up my point of view.

You opened Peter, James and John to a new way of seeing.
They experienced the miracle of your dazzling clothes and the voices of ancestors.
They imagined they could stay with you forever in that holy vision.

Instead, you called them back down the mountain to get to work.
You challenged them not to tell anyone.
They held the voice of the Father in their hearts, yet were confused by your command.

Jesus,
I long to see what the disciples saw.
I ache to hear the reassuring voice of the Father and the see the faces of the prophets.
I also want to see my everyday life differently.

Wipe away the tears of those who mourn.
Wipe clean the souls who turn from their gifts and abilities.
Wipe away our indifferences and restore our true sight.

Open the heavens and reassure us all you are near.
Open our hearts and help us experience your presence.
Open new paths and new perspectives when we tire along the way.

Listen to our voices when we cry out to you.
Listen to the plea of our neighbors who suffer in silence.
Listen to our pledges to stay with you.

Jesus,
In these desert days of Lent, give us your vision for a new earth.
Call us beyond our comfort.
Call us to mountain tops and valley floors.
Call us to share in your dying and rising.

We travel with you whole-heartedly, until Kingdom end.
Amen

First Sunday of Lent, 2009

2009-06-03T15:19:00.001-07:00

March 1, 2009

Jesus,
I long for a change of heart.
I beg you to find me in my own deserts of denial and failure.
I search for you in the heat of my sin.

For forty days you fasted and found the food of love.
Teach me to let go of the rations of self-protection and apathy.
Feed me from the bounty of the Father’s daily bread.

For forty days you prayed and found the words of hope.
Hear my prayers from my heart shrunken with fear and selfishness.
Give me the words that will help me trust the Father’s care for me.

For forty days you call me again to give of myself.
Help me extend my talents, my gifts, my fortune of education and well-being.
Open my hardened perspective to the needs of all who search for you.

Jesus,
You call me to repent and believe.
I struggle to change my ways, my life of self-sufficiency.
Get me beyond the confines of my negative judgments of other people.

The desert is always a place of challenge.
I resist you so often.
I cling to what I know from my past.
To live willingly in your love is difficult for me.

Yet, I believe the desert is a place of new life.
With a little trust and belief in you, I know I can walk the distance.
With a bit of courage, I understand you will walk with me.

Deserts are threatening for me because I want to know how the journey will end.
You do not promise me a smooth, harmless path.
You bring me through heat in the hope I will change my ways.

I actually wait for change.
I step into the desert today believing you are with me.

Amen

Easter Sunday 2009

2009-06-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

Jesus,
Mary of Magdala, Peter and John longed to grieve you.
They ran to sit at your tomb because they still could not accept your death.
They expected quiet, tears of grief and their own lonely hearts.

Instead they found the stone rolled back from the entrance.
Fear consumed them.

They peered in.
They saw emptiness.
They saw a simple white garment.
They saw only themselves.

Jesus,
Their joy came from the emptiness of the tomb.
They began to hear what you had predicted.
They saw new life even in their fear.

Give us courage this Easter morning.
Open up the graves of our despair.
Help us beyond our vision of emptiness.

I see the white garment everyday.
I see people waiting for a change of clothing at our parish doors.
I see people who wait for love.
I see those waiting for underwear, socks or a laundry voucher to wash their clothing.

Jesus,
Wrap a new garment of love around your people.
Embrace us in goodness, passion and new life.
Wash away the stains of despair, loneliness and discouragement

Help us all to believe that you remain with us.
Help us all believe that we belong wrapped in the garment of peace.
Help us all realize we cling to the emptiness of the tomb.
Help us all see ourselves in your bright light of Resurrection.

Amen