leadinginworship

Pentecost Congregational Prayer

Lord you give life to life!
From Day One, your Spirit brooding over the deep,
your wind rushing, your breath filling.
As creatures of the earth,  we inhale your grace
rejoicing in life abundant.
We use our breath, our being
to raise this hymn of praise:
for Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
and for the mission you give us
to spread your love to the world.

Our Pentecost petitions are many—
you know the prayers of our hearts.
Some of us are sick and tired, some of us are worried,
we fear for those we love, we fear the future.
Some of us are grieving, we don’t know how to go on.
We need your help!
We pray for the places in our world
where poverty has an iron grip…
whether that is close to home, or across the oceans.
We need  your Spirit to confront powers and principalities,
tyrants and governments and corporations
that feed off of and perpetuate poverty.

Today we pray especially for those
who are thinking of taking their own lives.
Guard and protect, showing that there can be good days
after this very bad day.
And for those whose lives have been shattered
by the death of a loved one to suicide,
hold them close, and give your comfort.
Thank you that you can reach even the most lifeless places.

This week, enliven us to be ambassadors of life divine,
to our neighbours, to our co-workers, to our family--
breathing out  the harmonies of your song,
melodies of the Holy Spirit--
unending, ageless, eternal and ever new.

Windy Day Congregational Prayer

Thank you for the wind!
Thank you for the way it sweeps across our great country,
over the Pacific ocean, up the mountains,
flying across the plains and the great lakes
till it arrives in Ontario in great gusts, [adjust to fit your geography]
making everything alive and lively,
blowing our hair and clothes into tangles,
filling our lungs and then blowing away
all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
Fill us with your Spirit this morning like this wind,
blow across our country and into our congregation,
enlivening us, moving us, stirring us.

Thank you for our congregation, for every person;
thank you for the differences of age and varieties of experience,
thank you even that we don’t always get along.
Thank you for the challenges you give us to live as your church,
giving us exercise in breaking down dividing walls
exercises in forgiveness and tolerance,
learning to love each other truly.
Your spirit blowing us in loving directions!
Today we pray for those we know who feel storm-tossed,
who feel they have lost a solid foundation.
Unsettled because of family arguments,
shaky because of financial insecurity,
rattled because of depression,  or a crisis of faith or meaning;
help us to be people who can reach out a hand of solidarity,
a steadying hand that points to you.

There is a wind blowing today in our country
and people are discontent with many things;
we pray for Canada,  and for our government leaders.
Help us to be a country that cares for all its citizens,
a country that listens to the people on the edge,
a country that is fair and just.
We especially pray that racist thoughts,
even our own, would be exposed and challenged.
Give us courage to speak loving words to each other,
to both live and give the love you've shown us 
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blow into our lives with your freshening spirit,
the Breath of Life for all the world.
Amen

Come, Holy Spirit, Come

We are waiting for your presence, God--
patient, like a lover sitting by the telephone
    waiting for the voice of their beloved;
attentive as a farmer watching clouds for rain
    waiting for the parched soil’s relief;
intent as a child standing by the road
    waiting for the parade to appear;
empty as a satellite dish scanning the heavens
    waiting for a message from the stars;
poised as the still arms of a windmill
    waiting for the wind’s inspiration;
open as the wide sand beach
    waiting for the tide’s embrace.
Come, Holy Spirit, come.

Breath of Spring Congregational Prayer

We listen this morning to the sound of our own breath,
and the breathing of those around us. [pause for 30 seconds]
Thank you God for breath,
for life flowing in and out of each of us.
It is wonderful to be alive—thank you for life!
Thank you for the sweet scent of the breath of spring;
for blossoms--apricot, cherry, peach,
for daffodils and sweet hyacinths,
for the good earth, turned over and ready for seed,
for the strong sun and its power.
Thank you that you are a God who hears our breath.
You hear our slow steady breaths as we’ve slept,
the panting of children as they run and play,
the deep breaths of hard work and manual labour,
our slow sighs when we are weary or filled with grief.
You hear our first little baby breath,
you are the one who hears and knows our final breath.
Your Spirit moves over the earth, enlivening us all.
Help us to exhale hatred, and inhale your love
Help us to exhale greed, and inhale your generosity.
Help us to exhale despair, and inhale your hope.
Breathe life into peacemakers,
in the conflicts in our own town and country,
where class and race and ideology divide us.
Breathe life into peacemakers in ___________
where war has ruled so long.
Breathe inspiration into our government leaders and diplomats,
helping them work for peaceful solutions.
Forgive us when we are not outraged by war and violence,
and instead are numb to every new story of destruction.
On this most beautiful of days,
with your Spirit blowing over this land,
thank you for giving us this chance
to be part of your breathtaking work,
humble servants in the service of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

Psalm 98 Call to Worship

Our call to worship is from Psalm 98:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
   break forth into joyous song and sing praises. 
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
   with the lyre and the sound of melody. 
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
   make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. 
Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
   the world and those who live in it. 
Let the floods clap their hands;
   let the hills sing together for joy 
at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming
   to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
   and the peoples with equity. [verses 4-9]

Here we are Lord!
We come into your house this morning
praising your faithfulness,
giving thanks for your mercy,
seeking your joy.
Thank you for creating us
and giving us life and breath today.
Thank you for your son Jesus Christ, our Saviour
and for the Holy Spirit
whose presence here
unites us as your people.
Fill us with your peace today. Amen.

The Church United

For centuries and millennia
the church divided.
In fragments,
polarized, incensed
and with bees in their bonnets,
Christian denounced Christian,
sending one another to hell,
or to their graves,
quoting scripture or creed
as the occasion demanded.
Or not.

For centuries and millennia,
churches worked in silos
of their own theological making,
ignoring each other completely,
repeating, “I’m not listening, I’m not listening,”
as songs of praise to God
drifted in through windows
that someone forgot to close.
Or not.

This year, to everyone’s surprise,
the Spirit rolls down Church Street
like an ice cream truck
playing its good news song.
Jesus, like a holy pied piper
who cannot be resisted,
pulls the children of God outside.
With no walls between them,
they meet one another’s eyes,
all lined up smiling,
waiting for God.

Congregational prayer for a snowy day

God, thank you for heaps of clouds,
with all their many colours of gray,
the way they drop snowflakes willy-nilly,
blanketing us with white.
Thank you for the sounds of winter;
the echo of a train whistle,
the tick, tick, tick of icy crystals hitting the window,
the squishy sound of snow under under our boots. 

Jesus, we want to follow in your footsteps,
placing each foot carefully in the place where you walked.
Your tracks leading straight to the place
where people are hurting
where people are hungry
where people are needing your help. 
Sometimes we get lost in our own thoughts,
and lose our way entirely.
Thank you for being with us even in lost places,
thank you for leading us home.

Today we pray for those who are walking through the cold winter of grief,
and those who face health challenges. [name specific people]
Be a shelter for us in every storm.
We pray especially today for people who are homeless,
who live under bridges or in cars or empty buildings,
and face the bitter cold with no warm place to go home to.
Help us to open our hearts to their needs,
and bless the individuals and agencies
who are working to bring justice and hope. 

Thank you for your Holy Spirit
enveloping us with love.
Deep love, falling over us,
moment by moment,
one flake at a time.
We want to come to worship
like smiling snowbound children
wading through the world
knee deep in blessing.
God of ice and snow,
hear our prayer on this northern nippy day,
Amen.

Kindred Spirit

I want someone to love me just as I am,
someone who calls me when I need calling,
hugs me when I need hugging,
cries with me when I am crying,
laughs with me when I am laughing,
someone who dances with me
and matches my walk stride for stride.
I want a companion who sits companionably,
watching the world go by with me,
happy to be quiet or silly or thoughtful
as the moods chase us together.
Whether they live near or far,
I know they are with me in heart,
my bosom buddy, my kindred spirit. 

God of great gifts,
grant that I may not so much seek to have kindred spirits
as to be a kindred spirit.
Give me ears to hear the needs of those around me,
arms to hold them when they need holding,
eyes to see their pain or their joy,
and a heart to feel it.
God grant that I may not so much seek
to be comforted as to comfort,
to be loved as to love,
to be enjoyed as to enjoy,
to be thought of, as to think of others.
And most of all help me know
that You are the Kindred Spirit
whose love we can count on,
time in and time out, time after time.

 

Call to worship for a windy day

God in heaven,
you are the God of rushing winds
swirling over mountains and across the plains,
the God of mighty gusts
driving clouds and current around the earth.
The winds of time are yours,
a century is but a moment in your sight.
This morning we ask for the wind of your Spirit
to blow through your church,
stirring us with your courage,
moving us with your compassion,
filling us with your hope.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Living water congregational prayer

Thank you for water;
for its smooth cleanness as it runs from our taps,
water that is safe for drinking,
water that doesn’t stop running.
Thank you for beautiful blue of lakes,
for the chortling of streams, for the rushing of rivers,
for the richness of water resources.
Thank you for water from the skies,
for water that falls on gardens and crops,
fuelling green growth, food for the world.
Thank you for water for fun;
for swimming pools filled with laughing children,
and sprinklers making rainbows on the hottest days.
Water is so everpresent, so powerful and lifegiving,
we almost forget that it is a gift from you.

We come with prayers today for people who are sick,
we need your spirit of healing flowing into our lives.
There are people here grieving the loss of loved ones,
comfort them with visions of eternal streams.
Where we have given up hope; fill us now.
Where we are lonely; fill us now.
Where we can find no love in our hearts; fill us now.
Forgive us for living parched lives,
wastelands where we think only of ourselves,
and spare no thoughts for those around us.
Thank you for your presence, which bubbles up,
refreshing and enlivening our hardest places.

Today we pray for dry places in the world;
for lands where people walk long distances for water,
where weather patterns have changed, and people wait for rain.
We pray for countries like Israel and Palestine where access to water
becomes a weapon of oppression.
Lord, give us a thirst for righteousness and justice!
Help us work for peace in our world,
for there is so much water and yet many are thirsty.
We pray all this in Jesus’ name,
who is Living Water for us all,  Amen.

Psalm of Praise

Lord you give life to life
from Day 1, your Spirit brooding over the deep,
your wind rushing, your breath filling.
As creatures of the earth we rejoice in life
using our breath, our being
to raise this hymn of praise:
Hallelujah to the sun’s hot passion
embracing the ground’s great shoulders.
Hallelujahs for the growth from seed to plant
greening the earth;  its fruit—beauty and food!
Hallelujahs for generations of life
tumbling one after another.
Life creeping, swimming, flying, running,
below, above, upon, within.
All the world sings, calls, signals, speaks
praise to God whose glory grows in all that breathes!

This morning, with humble hearts,
knowing your love, we bring before you our needs:
for healing from our sicknesses and sorrows,
for reconciliation with those we have harmed,
for peace among our warring nations.
These are the dry valleys
where your Spirit will triumph.
Fill us, enliven us to be ambassadors of life abundant,
breathing out your song in harmony,
the choir of the created,
singing to our Creator,
whose Holy Spirit is unending, ageless, eternal.

Psalm for Silence

I crave silence like water.
In this noisy non-stop fast-paced high-powered
injection-fuelled people-filled emotion-packed
day, I say,
“I crave silence like water.”
Drop, drop, drop
into my soul, soul, soul.
I will listen for the drip and the echo.
I will look, look, look
for the dropper of silence
and wait, wait, wait to be filled.

Silence expands noiselessly.
It blossoms unexpectedly,
beautifully, completely,
and it doesn’t leave when you open your eyes.
Silence is companionable,
it likes your company,
and wants you to stick around.
Silence is the long-term friend of pause,
and is acquainted with catch-your-breath.
Close cousins with sleep.
Wait’s uncle.
Silence swoops over the world,
its wings brush our hair.

Silence outdistances all takers.
In the vast reaches of space,
supernovas explode in silence.
Silence seeps into the world
through the night sky.
I open my mouth
as round as the moon
and breathe in silence.

Spring Cleaning Prayer of Confession

Here’s a prayer for the corners of our lives
messy with yesterday’s business.
There’s the guilt about what was thrown in the garbage,
the regret about spending too much on extra things,
the time that was frittered away agonizing about details,
the energy wasted on trying to meet someone else’s standards.
Our memories are cobwebbed over with regret
of how it could have been different:
it could have been more responsible, more selfless,
more organized, more healthy, more something.
Even now, looking forward, there’s the sinking feeling
that bulldozers will not be able to clean up the mess we'll make.

We need you like a woman cleaning in May,
opening windows, pulling down dusty drapes,
chairs and rugs dragged out onto the lawn.
Every surface of our lives open and revealed
scoured by soap and spring winds.
The Spirit at work,
hope and new directions moved in like furniture.
Create in us clean corners, Lord,
ordered, uncluttered, functional.
Minds clarified, set to rights,
filled with the freshness of new beginnings.

Prayer After a Tsunami

God of Hope,
in this time of tumult we lay before you the country of _____.
With their land still trembling,
they try to comprehend devastation too broad in its scope:
the sea sweeping through leaving people killed and missing,
homes and towns and cities demolished.
Our prayers are for the people of ______:
Holy Comforter, bring your peace.

We are acutely aware of all who need rescue:
those trapped in buildings and remote areas,
those without food or clean water or shelter,
the injured, the terrified, the anguished.
Give strength and stamina to rescuers.    
Give strength and compassion to medical staff.
Give strength and clear vision to leaders who mobilize relief.
Our prayers are for the people of ________:
Holy Comforter, bring your peace.

In this time of crisis for a country that is suffering deeply,
we pray for the Christian church in ______ and all people of faith
that they will be a calm presence
providing hope and help in such a time as this.
Aid those from around the world who are mobilizing support
so that their efforts can be effective and timely.
Give us open hands and hearts to help the people of ________.
Thank you for being the Holy Comforter, who brings us peace.

a faith without bells

I belong to a faith without bells.
No crystal clear call to worship
floating over fields and factories,
whispering over shopping malls;
come, come, come.

I belong to a faith without bells.
No insistent tugging reminder
more universal than any cellphone
piercing even concrete with its message,
the bell calling one and all;
now, now, now.

I belong to a faith without bells.
No steady rhythm marking the days,
chiming the hours, calling to service,
bells that have rung for centuries,
beyond the hearing of my ancestors;
time, time, time.

I belong to a faith within hearts.
We are tuned to the Spirit’s pitch,
her pure tones humming always
on the edge of hearing,
a ringing endorsement
for those with ears to hear;
love, love, love.

The Starry Host

For the starry host of heaven

for the velvet black of night

for the moon a brilliant circle

for the clouds reflecting light

for the land in silence resting

for the stillness everywhere

for the dew like grace descending

for the fragrance in the air;

for God is in the evening

for Christ is drawing near

for the Spirit now is longing

to make beauty's presence clear.

Corners of My Mind

Here’s a prayer for the corners of my mind

littered with unfinished business—

hopes squashed decades ago,

orphan words that never had a listening ear,

yearnings unhinged, glances missed,

potential unrealized,

torn maps of roads not taken.

In lonely moments, if you listen closely,

you can hear regret gnawing away there

sharpening its teeth on yesterday’s sorrows.

 

I need a prayer like a woman cleaning in May,

opening windows, pulling down dusty drapes,

furniture dragged out onto the lawn.

Every surface open and revealed

scoured by soap and spring winds.

Create in me clean corners, Lord,

ordered, uncluttered, functional.

A mind clarified, set to rights

making way for the Spirit

who after a long day’s work,

brushes back her hair from her forehead,

lets out a deep breath, and smiles.

All We Desire

Your love breaking down barricades of hatred.

Your peace melting permafrosted hearts.

Your joy cascading over bleak resignation.

Your patience bending the world slowly.

Your gentleness permeating even the most impermeable.

Your goodness towering above all evils.

Your kindness embracing our fear.

Your faith moving mountains.

Your spirit, Lord, is all we desire. 

Be with us in this hour of worship. Amen.