After Pentecost

Seventeenth Week after Pentecost, Thursday, October 6, 2022 2 Timothy 1:13-18 Loving Divine Family, We enter your sacred prayer space…

We bear your image; others see we are your children and cannot harm us. Though they choose not to acknowledge you, they cannot deny your sovereign place as Creator of all things. We will step with courage upon your path with full faith in you as our guide.

Cleanse and purify us, O Yahweh. Hear our prayers and desires for ourselves and others as we cry to you. Throw your mercy around us, a robe of pure forgiveness and mercy. Keep our eyes from idols and false teachings. We seek to follow you all of our days.

Way-Maker, you are with us in this sacred moment. We are surrounded by your love and presence. Thank you for being with us in life’s circumstances, providing a way for us to stand firm in your love.

We gather at your Beautiful Gate and consider our circumstances. You call us by name to enter your sacred prayer space, the inner-sanctuary where we can participate in your mystery. But we respond with hesitation. We do not feel ready. We feel like we need more, to be more prepared, and to be able to demonstrate our worthiness to enter. But you tell us that you have already given us all we need and you call us worthy.

Today, we invite you to reread, rest and reflect on the prayers of the past week.

Lectionary Readings for Today:
Psalm 37:1-9
Isaiah 7:1-9
Matthew 20:29-34

Loving Divine Family,

We enter your sacred prayer space with troubled hearts. We receive alarming or unsettling news each day that causes us to fear. Panic presses us from all sides; the world seems more desolate all the time. Thank you for this space and your patience while we pour out our fears, griefs, and concerns to you. Empty us, LORD, so we may once again feel your peace filling us and hear your promises.

Your sunbeams kiss our cheeks, reminding us that you are with us. You are the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Only you can fill our gardens and vineyards, fields and granaries. We will follow you alone, from this time forth and for all generations.

Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, all we have is because of you. We come into this world with nothing, and we leave this world with nothing. We fool ourselves thinking our wealth, status, and identity are because of our own work. Thank you, we are your beloved gifts. May we hear the call to return to you to maintain love and justice and to follow you. May we remember that what we have is because of you. May we hold tight to you, instead of our possessions, status, and identity. Your joy is our strength.

We enter your sacred prayer space carrying the guilt of our sins and of past generations. We have been taught to live by the letter of your law. We should surely burn in your furnace like the chaff of harvest. Yet, here we are, invited into your presence and embraced in your loving, strong arms. You choose to not mark our iniquities. We are marked only with your love.