6/5/08

Prayersfrom EMCTour

6/5/08

6/5/08

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless us with discomfort At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships So that we may live from deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God's creations So that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war, So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and To turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with just enough foolishness To believe that we can make a difference in the world, So that we can do what others claim cannot be done: To bring justice and kindness to all our children and all our neighbors who are poor. Amen.

6/5/08

A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis:

All: Lord, make us instruments of your peace. A: Where there is hatred, let us sow love; B: where there is injury, pardon; A: where there is discord, union; B: where there is doubt, faith;

A: where there is despair, hope; B: where there is darkness, light; A: where there is sadness, joy.

ALL: Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; A: to be understood as to understand; B: to be loved as to love.

A: For it is in giving that we receive; B: it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; ALL: and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Amen.

Let us prepare our hearts for change by confessing our sins to God, with one another.

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo.

6/5/08

Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.

Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.

A reading from the prophet Micah:

what shall I bring when I come before YAWH and bow down before God on high? you ask. Am I to come before God with burnt offerings? With year old calves?

Will YAWH be placated by thousands od rams or ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my first born for my wrongdoings the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul!

Listen here O mortal: God has already made abundantly clear what good is, and what YHWH needs from you; simply do justice, love kindness, and humbly walk with your God.
Micah 6:6-8

6/5/08