Living Each Day Prayers - Seekers Church

The Prayers

Transforming Mystery

Eternal creator,
transforming mystery,
spirit of wisdom,
we speak our praise and gratitude
for your release of life
within us and in our universe.
Your spirit uncovers truths that
we have kept hidden
and supports us in tasks we fear to undertake
alone.

We praise you for
invitations to growth, intimacy,
and depth of life,
for companionship and comfort
extended to us in our journey to be faithful
to our callings and to you.

Receive our thanksgiving,
gentle one,
for you have touched our soul.
You have loved us from the moment of our first waking
and known us in joy and in grief.

Help us claim our strength and need,
our awesomeness and fragile beauty,
that encouraged by your truth
we might work to restore compassion in the human family
and renew the face of the earth.

Spirit of the living Christ,
invade the depth of our being
with your spirit of forgiveness and healing,
that we may be daring in our gospel deeds
and may pursue your dreams of
justice.

Praise

Graceful soaring spirit,
source of creation
sweeping across the bounds of time and space,
holy breath of love,
divine imagination,
you fill the universe and move within and among us.
We rejoice in the wonder of your
generosity, power, and presence.

Prophetic, liberating Christ,
we celebrate our relationship with you.
Show us how to understand our lives
through your vision of people and structures.
We yearn from them all
to be truly life giving and to be good news.

Sophia, wisdom spirit,
energizer, comforter, flower of hope,
revealer of truth and justice,
we are thankful that you are
dancing grace in our midst,
inviting full participation in life,
encouraging our uniqueness.

God of unity, of wholeness, of community,
we dare to risk believing that you exist
in relationship,
not only with us but also
within your very being,
that your essence is relationship.
We are thankful for all the ways
we can know you.
You are our hope’s beginning, way and end.

We Are Grateful

Mother of our hearts,
creator, lover, sustainer,
holy timeless mystery,
we thank you
for this time and those things
that are yet possible and precious in it.

We acknowledge
the opposites of promise and uncertainty
which give fresh shape and form
to our life,
and we seek to embrace them.

We speak our gratitude for daybreak
and beginning again,
for midnight and the touch of angels,
for the taming of demons
in the dance of our dreams.

We offer thanksgiving
for fierce gentleness
which dares to spread the truth in love,
for the sudden gusts of grace
which come unexpectedly
as we move from dawn to dawn,
for all the mysteries of loving
and especially for knowing Jesus
and his ways of being love.

We are grateful
for the beauty of music and silence,
of verse and image,
and for everything that moves us to tears,
to laughter, to dreams, to joy,
to touching and prayer,
for all our longings and for life.

Jesus of Nazareth, our brother,
you sat with disciples and friends
helping them understand the truth of your good news.
Sit with us and show us
the paths to justice and compassion,
to new decisions about the future,
to hope and love.

Being Present

Always available artist of glory,
Holy God,
the hearts of all who yearn to be changed into your likeness
give praise.

Insistent spirit of grace
present in joy and celebration,
in pain and uncertainty,
in healing and reconciliation,
receive our praise.

Spirit of Christ,
you take great pleasure in those who hunger after you,
and we do hunger.
We want to covenant with you
to respond to your transforming presence,
in freedom with faces unveiled.
We want to embrace your companionship
and offer gratitude for our lives and
your gift of call unfolding in them.

Hear our prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

Eternal one,
whose wisdom is like that of an aging woman,
tested, patient, strong and true,
remind us that your vision is
at work in the world.
Remind us that the Jesus spirit of union with you
gave expression to that vision.
Heal us that we may be
pathways of healing.
Bless us that we may be blessing in your world.
Pour out your love in us
that we may be lovers of all creation.

Hear our prayers of intercession and petition.

Promise and Paradox

Faithful, gracious God,
we offer our praise and gratitude
for your promises that encourage our lives.

Your promise
to be our companion always and
to make visible the signs that show us
the direction we are to take.

Your promise
to be our rock,
solid and sure, steady and real.

Your promise
to bring into union
that which is in discord.

Your promise
lived by Jesus.

God of mystery,
we hear too
your words of paradox.

The paradox
of faith and works,
of life and death,
darkness and light.

We are thankful that your spirit encourages us
to live in the midst of these tensions and
to trust your power of revelation.

We praise you and offer our gratitude for
calling us to live the reality of our lives
in the certainty of your acceptance, love and strength.

Compassionate one,
we are members of the human family – your family.
To us all
give ears to hear your promises and challenges.
To us all
give a healing deeper than the assurances and comfort
we often seek.

Psalm 23

Holy God,
you are our shepherd,
we shall want for nothing that truly matters.
In green pastures you give us rest
and beside deep, still waters you lead us.
You promise to be with us always,
offering freedom from the frictions of hatred, anxiety, fear and pain.
You give us living water to satisfy our thirst for peace.

We praise you and wonder
if this is for all people.

You refresh and restore our souls
and guide us in right paths
for the sake of your name.
When we are cast down
we have been shown ways to bring a new creation
to life in our world.
Your unique plan for all of life and for each life
is written into our very essence.
May we believe it is a plan
filled with hope,
grown out of love.

Help our unbelief.

Even though we walk in the dark valley,
we will fear no danger
for you, God, are at our side,
with rod and staff to give us courage.
Each life, every nation, has its share of valleys.
Some seem to have more than is right.
You are a constant companion in the darkness.
When violence, pain and loss are heavy
you comfort.
When we are aching, lost and discouraged,
you seek us out.
When we go astray,
your compassionate judgment draws us back.

Receive our gratitude. Know our darkness.
You spread the table before us in the sight of our enemies
and richly bathe our heads with oil.
Our cups overflow.
O holy one,
you are our host as well as our shepherd.
You invite us to the banquet,
the banquet of life.
All parts of the world are invited –
enemies and friends,
the alienated and powerful,
those close at hand and those far off.
You offer the abundance and lavishness
of bread broken and shared
and the cup of refreshment that leads to new life.

We praise and thank you for your abundant spirit.

Goodness and love unfailing,
these will follow us all the days of our lives,
and we shall dwell in the home of our God
for all eternity.

Embodiment

Grace filled, holy other,
be present to us as
we are vulnerable and
in touch with our body wholeness.

Giver of life,
we respond to your affirmation
of the sacredness of our flesh,
of our incarnation,
with all its physical potential
and sensuous beauty.

We praise you
for the precious gift of sacred bodies,
all parts of our bodies,
for the pleasure and power they express.
Help us to understand the how our spirituality
is enriched by
claiming our sexuality
so that we may be more truly whole,
more truly holy.

Compassionate God,
we claim our membership in the human family,
your family.
We long to be embodiments
of Christ’s love,
love for your family
and for ourselves.

Wherever there is suffering
amid poverty, war, oppression, illness and loss,
wherever life is being lived by illusions
of success, security and power,
may we be channels for healing,
your healing
that is deeper and fuller than the
immediate consolation and comfort
we often seek,
a healing that shows forth
your grace.