The Church Lab has gathered these prayers from members of our dialogue community to share with you during the unusual period we find ourselves in as a larger community. We at TCL offer them for your comfort. We continue to keep you and your loved ones’ health and well-being in our prayers.
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Dear Lord,
Thank you for your goodness and love toward us.
As we continue to experience the effects of the virus throughout the world, may you bring unity among your church and may we be a blessing to our communities.
May familial relationships be nurtured and may you deepen our relationship with you.
May we show your love in every interaction and would you encourage those who are discouraged?
Would you provide for those who need provision and would you heal in mighty ways?
You are the God of the heavens and the earth.
Would you send down your blessings to cover the earth?
Thank you Lord.
In your name we pray,
Amen
Churches around the world are singing blessings over their cities. These videos have been a great encouragement and blessing to me.
Here is a beautiful video from Pittsburgh: click here to witness
With love,
Eileen
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Everlasting God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
give us, we pray,
a firm foundation
in your truth
as the Holy Spirit
moves in our hearts.
May we practice peace,
in the midst of chaos;
create beauty,
in the midst of darkness;
express gratitude,
in the midst of change;
and guide us ever forward,
through the life and light
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
—Joanna
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Lamentation for a Pandemic
How lonely sits the city that was full of people.
Hear how we groan; there are few to comfort us.
Oh! Our homes have become our prisons,
locked away from those who would give us succor.
We are weary and faint of heart.
The disease has descended upon the earth.
It reaches into the markets and across the tables.
The malady has stretched out its hands over us,
our breath taken away as we burn with fever.
In the house is perpetual death.
We remember the times of joyful company!
Our arms clasped one another in friendship!
Our hands found meaningful tasks,
we sat at tables and worshiped in your house.
Side by side your people lived together!
Survivors bear perpetual sorrow, crying out for mercy.
We are desolate in our suffering.
Those left behind weep rivers of tears,
they cannot lay their eyes on their dead.
Our hearts are broken forever.
O Lord, the earth and its people are in tumult.
Our souls cry out for comfort.
Workers are prevented from their labor;
healers carry burdens too heavy to bear,
No relief appears.
Pam
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I'd like to share the last paragraph from Anne Lamott's book "Almost Everything: Notes on Hope" published in 2018. She concludes:
"We have all need to come through. Against all odds, no matter what we've lost, no matter what messes we've made over time, no matter how dark the night, we offer and are offered kindness, soul, light, and food, which create breath and spaciousness, which create hope, sufficient unto the day."
Even though she wrote these words two years ago, they apply equally today.
Donna
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Here are two short prayers from the Baha'i Prayer Book that are both iconic and comforting:
1)
Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy.
Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion.
Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come.
Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.—Bahá’u’lláh
2)
O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit.
Purify my heart. Illumine my powers.
I lay all my affairs in Thy hand.
Thou art my Guide and my Refuge.
I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being.
O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.
O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord. - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Warmest Regards,
Curtis