leadinginworship

Snowy Congregational Prayer

God, we have come to worship stomping snow off our boots,
our eyes watering and cheeks stinging from the cold.
Some of us have had to shovel our way out of our homes,
others have picked our way carefully on slippery sidewalks.
Thank you for bringing us here to worship
through this crystal-covered world,
where all the outlines are softer, and the night is bright.
Thank you for the mysterious beauty of this winter season. 
We pray today for all who face hardship because of winter;
for those who can’t afford heating, or who can’t afford heat and food,
and for those who are living outside, or are walking the streets
until the shelters open their doors.
This weather binds us together;
open our hearts to reach out to those in need,
checking on people who need help because they can’t get out,
or lending a helping hand with clearing cars and sidewalks.
We pray for travellers, and those who operate ambulances
and public transit, who work hard to get people where they need to go.
Thank you for the perspective of children, who love the snow,
and find it magical, a change from the routine,
a dazzling playground made just for them.
This week give us the eyes of children to see the gifts all around us;
the pleasures of each other’s company,
the delight of good food, and good games,
and the contagiousness of a good belly laugh.
Even as some find joy and beauty this week,
we know that others feel frozen with grief.
We pray for those who are sorrowing over the loss of loved ones,
especially the ____________ family.
Others in our community feel the heavy weight of sickness,
or they’re coping with pain or the anxiety of waiting for test results.
There is the anxiety for our world, of economic troubles in Venezuela,
of wars that won’t end in Syria, and insurmountable walls in Israel Palestine.
We need your Spirit hovering over the earth like snowclouds,
dropping peace upon us one small flake at a time,
blanketing us with your love, transforming our bleak landscape
into something that can sparkle in the light of your Son.
We long for this with all our hearts, and so we pray,
let it be so, Amen.

Longing for Peace Call to Worship

Welcome to worship 
at this turn of the season. 
As the temperatures dip
we gather in the warmth
of God’s presence,
as the darkness grows
we seek Gods light,
as the earth rests from its labours
we long for God’s peace.
Come, let us worship the Lord!

Coming Coldness Congregational Prayer

Creator God,
thank you that you order the change of the seasons.
Thank you for the great upheaval that is fall.
Billions of trees dropping every leaf.
Birds heaving themselves across oceans to warmer continents.
Animals burrowing, amphibians tunnelling, everyone going deep
to escape the coming coldness.
All of this orchestrated by you.
Be with us in these changing times.
We pray for people without shelter,
or who have to choose between being warm and being fed.
Give workers in social service agencies patience and compassion.
Give politicians in government the will to help.
Open our hearts to help our neighbours.
We think of people we know who are sick with colds and flus,
or coping with longer term illnesses:
bring healing to their bodies.
And there are many here who are grieving who need your presence,
they have said goodbye to someone dear and their soul is aching
(we think especially of...)
And yet right in the midst of hard times you send new life and new love. 
Thank you for babies who turn our lives upside down in good ways,
(we give thanks especially for...)
We pray for parents of young children as they navigate
the changes of childhood...give their love strength in the midst of tiredness,
as they face a million small important decisions.
In this season of growing darkness bring us together as a community,
neighbour helping neighbour, each looking out for each.
As we fall into winter,
blanket us with your presence.
Draw us deeper into your love.
In this long season, help us sing your songs, songs of joy and protection.
We pray this in the name of Jesus, our Saviour, Amen

"It is the Lord" Congregational Prayer

God, thank you for the dawn that comes every morning,
even after our darkest nights.
We give you thanks for life resurrecting from the death of winter.
For birds singing their spring songs in the dark before the dawn;
for the ice on rivers, shattered,
for the first green spikes of spring poking up through the melting earth,
for the smell of spring air fresh when we open the door,
for the sun’s rays on our face, warming us.
For every sign of spring, we give you thanks!

We give you thanks for your son Jesus Christ,
for his sacrifice for us, for his teaching.
Help us to grasp resurrection; to understand its power,
to see its force at work in our world,
thawing the hatred within us, melting our hearts,
changing our human landscape slowly, forcefully.
We pray your hand would intervene in the war-torn country of Syria,
that peace could be planted there, that new life could come
to a country so firmly held in the grip of death.
We pray for refugees, especially the families new to our community
that they could find a home here and put down roots.

Jesus, we might not always recognize you,
but thank you that you walk with us in both the big cataclysms of our time,
and in the everyday events too.
Thank you that you are walking with all the parents in this church,
as they make a thousand decisions every day,
to insist or to let go, to mediate or not to mediate,
the tone of voice they use, the choices about activities.
Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to show love to our family members,
for the ways we’ve hardened our hearts
even to those we love the most.
Give us grace to apologize, and wisdom to make things right.

Thank you for your presence in the doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals we visit,
as we face sickness, as we recover.
Thank you that you are with us at the moment of death,
and with those left behind to grieve.
We wait for the moments where you are suddenly revealed
in the every day and painful moments of our lives,
where we say, wonderingly, “It is the Lord!”
Thank you for the times we catch sight of your kingdom come,
in the person of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns in us forever. 
Amen

Letting Go Fall Congregational Prayer

Thank you for the extravagant letting go in nature all around us.
The clouds letting go of moisture in rain and snow.
Trees letting go of their leaves, revealing their naked beauty.
The winds letting loose and blowing everything away.
As the days grow short, and the nights grow long,
help us to open our hands and drop what is not essential.
Help us trust that nothing is wasted,
that all of life is held in your hands,
and finds a purpose that is beyond our knowing.
Help us let go of the fears that plague us in the long nights.
We pray for parents who are learning to let go of their growing children,
trusting them to find their way and make healthy choices.
We pray for those of us who are learning to let go of our money.
Forgive us for our tendency to take your gifts and hoard them:
too often we make long lists of what we want to buy for ourselves,
rather than thinking of the good we could do for others.
We pray today for those we love who are suffering.
We need healing for the sick, comfort for the grieving,
relief for those weighed down by economic insecurity and injustice.
Fill us with new ideas of how to help and comfort.
We pray for those who are homeless in our community,
who have been let down by social safety nets.
And we pray for refugees who have nowhere to turn,
whose own countries have pushed them out and abandoned them.
Thank you for the work of agencies like ___________
that are doing the hard work of mobilizing support for newcomers to our country,
give them strength and wisdom, and the resources they need to do their work.
Remind us this week to do all we can to make our country a welcoming place,
remembering that we see your face among the hungry and the homeless.
Thank you that we are all your children
and that you will never let us go. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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

Prince of Pieces Congregational Prayer

The world is filled with your glory,
and you’ve given us eyes to see it,
ears to hear it, a nose to smell it,
hands and mouth to touch and taste.
Thank you for the taste of fresh strawberries,
for the way their sweetness symbolizes summer.
Thank you for the beauty of roses,
red and yellow and white and pink,
their fragrance, the delicateness of their petals.
Thank you for the sun and the wind after so much rain.
Your love surrounding us in so many sensory ways.
Bring life in our own hearts,
which are in places dead and cold.
We have relationships that we’ve given up on.
We think peace can never come between warring nations.
We can’t see a way to stop environmental destruction.
Right in the midst of the muck of our despairs,
you plant a seed of hope.
Help us nurture new life with small steps towards peace;
a kind word even when someone is mean to us,
faithful prayers for the people of warring countries,
and gifts to agencies that work for peace.
Or the small step of conservation,
the step of noticing the world, not walking by,
taking care and giving care to the lives of the creatures
with whom we share this world.
Peace comes to the world in pieces,
small pieces, which you piece together
in ways too mysterious for us to understand.
The tiniest seeds growing beyond our wildest hopes.
Prince of Peace, Prince of all pieces,
be our Saviour, now and forever.  Amen.

Winter Solstice Prayer for the Northern Hemisphere

God of Winter

even at mid-day today the winter solstice sun

crouched low over the southern horizon.

Low noon, and the day is short.

Darkness sits with us early and late,

lingering longer the further north we go.

Bundled against the cold,

the lack of light weighs on us,

and we are plagued with dark worries

in these troubled times.

And yet, you order this big old earth.

Sailing through space it tips only so far,

but no further from the sun.

Thank you for solar power and centripetal forces

which grip us, warm us, and give us life.

Thank you for reminders when we become too

self-absorbed with our own importance:

the world is spinning as it should

without any help from us.

God of the distant Spring,

be with us in this cold season.

Be our light when all other lights fail;

we live and move and have our being

in your love.

Spring of Life Congregational Prayer

Great God,
this week we have been witnesses
to the power of resurrection;
slow motion explosions of green
soundlessly changing our landscape,
blossoms blossoming pink,
tulips tuliping their brilliant colours,
opening their mouths to the warmth of the sun.
We find ourselves opening up too in these May days,
opening our windows,
turning our faces upward,
breathing deeply.
The fragrance of spring permeates our world,
and we give you thanks for the blessing of life renewed.

We pray for our government;
for our mayor ___________and our local leaders,
as they debate issues, and make decisions
about new initiatives and new program.
Help them to make decisions that benefit all citizens,
particularly those who are marginalized and voiceless.
We pray for our Prime Minister _______________
and our MP [MLA]_____________,
especially as they make decisions
about foreign aid and foreign policy;
that they could sow seeds of peace.

We are mindful this week that even as spring comes to Canada,
in ___________ they are facing a natural disaster
which has brought heartbreak and destruction.
Comfort the bereaved, give strength to the rebuilders.
Open the hearts of the world as we contribute to relief.
Sustain the [international relief organizations you support] as they deal with this crisis,
so that they could continue to provide help in your name.

We lift up those we know with health issues, especially ___________.
We need your healing power for these dear ones.
We also pray this morning for those in the spring of life,
who are expecting new babies,
that you would give them patience and health, and safe deliveries.

Forgive us for the times this week we have been too overwhelmed to act,
too selfish to look beyond ourselves,
locked in a winter of self-preoccupation with our own business.
Bring new life to our primary relationships.
For those who are married, renew our vows of constancy,
rekindle love so that we can truly cherish one another.
Give us new strength and new patience as we
go about our work of caregiving for children.

Help our congregation to be an incubator of hope,
a blessing in our community, and in our city [region].
We want to join with you in your kingdom work,
as your hope grows,
pregnant with possibility,
ripe with promise.
In the name of the resurrected Jesus we pray,
Amen

Congregational Prayer for a Winter Morning

Thank you God for the slanting rays of the sun in the morning,
making everything golden and new.
For the blessing of snow, falling on everything,
covering everything like a benediction.
Thank you for the shock of cardinals against bare branches,
and the liveliness of squirrels running through trees.
Thank you for the smell of coffee and tea in the morning,
for warm houses and comfortable clothes,
for days off and time to relax.
Thank you for this day, which we have been given as a gift!

We long to know you, and your will for our lives.
We confess there are places in our lives where we are confused and puzzled.
In difficult family relationships, we don’t know where to turn.
In heavy financial difficulties, we feel stuck.
In scary health problems, we feel overwhelmed.
In complex political dilemmas, we long for answers.
Give us insight into your word,
so that we can understand your will for our world, and for our lives.
Helps us to be a community for each other,
and for those on the margins,
extending the peace of Christ in practical, everyday ways.

Today especially we pray for the children in our church.
Thank you for the promise of hope for the future that children bring.
Thank you for our babies, out toddlers, our school age children;
thank you for our high schoolers.
We pray for health and strength for these precious ones in our midst,
especially those with chronic health challenges.
Thank you for the way children are a gift in our church,
their unbounded enthusiasm and excitement is like yeast and salt for us.
Help them in their schooling, to learn well,
and give them insight as they reach out in friendship
and are themselves befriended by others.
Give parents and caregivers patience,
help them to find creative solutions in stressful circumstances.
Give them soft hearts and open arms
as they model how to say “I’m sorry”, and how to say, “I love you”
with more than words.

Today we also pray for children in our community who are frightened,
and alone, who face abuse, and hunger and uncertainty.
Help the teachers and social workers and medical staff who meet these children
to recognize their pain and do as much as they can
to bring peace into their fractured lives.
Help our political leaders to have a heart and a will to help children in trouble.

Our communities are far from perfect, far from peaceful,
we have a long way to go to find your kingdom,
and yet you are here even now.
Open our eyes to see your presence.
And now we pray together, as you taught us to pray [Lord's Prayer]

Rainy Day Congregational Prayer

Thank you God for rain.
For the feel of raindrops on our skin,
the way we taste rain in the air,
for the sound of water hitting the thirsty ground,
for its transformative greening power,
for the smell of wet earth.
We give you thanks
for the grace of water falling from the sky.
We confess that we are parched for your presence.
We go through dry times,
times where grief stretches us out,
exposing all we are to your gaze.
There are times when we lose all patience
even with those we love; the well of love runs dry
even for those nearest and dearest.
There are times where fear parches our throat
and we can’t even find the words to pray.
Thank you that we find you even in the desert.
Thank you for the way your love seeps into our lives,
for the way it envelops us like a fine mist,
for the way it soaks us like a deluge,
just when we need it most.
This week our city mourns for
a fallen police officer, _____________,
killed in the line of duty.
Thank you for the way this grief
has opened our hearts in gratitude
for the everyday selfless service
that so many offer in our city.
We pray for the ___________ family,
our police force, and our city as we grieve this loss.
We pray for all the people in our congregation
who are going through dry times;
dry spiritual times, and places of physical pain
where we are thirsty for relief.
Especially today we pray for _________ in hospital,
that you would sustain them and comfort them in a time of trial.
Thank you for our congregation,
and the way you water the garden of our lives,
so we can bear fruit for you.   Amen.

 

Summer Congregational Prayer

Our souls magnify the Lord.
Our souls amplify the goodness of God--
we take a good close-up look at all our blessings.

Thank you for plants.
For the deliciousness of fresh lettuce
and the sharp tang of dill,
but also for their beauty, their leafy wonder,
their greenness,their fragrance.
Thank you for the miracle of growth,
for sun and rain which has made them grow
and for the mysteries of photosynthesis.
Creation at work at a molecular level,
converting energy from the sun and carbon dioxide
into organic compounds that we call food,
that we eat, that sustains our life.
Thank you God for plants!

We magnify your goodness,
and take a good close-up look at all our blessings.
Thank you for our families,
for the companionship of people who have known us over time.
Thank you for old uncles, for young grandchildren, for siblings and in-laws.
Thank you for the variety of personalities in our life,
the way they challenge us, change us, endear themselves to us.
Love at work at the everyday level,
converting our everyday world into an ordered world,
filled with harmonies and disharmonies,
a symphony of relationship.

We magnify the Lord, and proclaim your lordship over our broken world.
Give us eyes to see how you are tending to that brokenness,
how you would use us to address poverty in our own community,
how you would use us to address loneliness in our own community,
how you would use us to address racism in our own community.
We proclaim you Lord over our lives,
forgive us for the times where we have gone our own way,
narrowing our vision to only our own interests.
We have neglected the work that you have for us.

Help us as a church to be clear about our mission here,
faithful followers of Jesus, together,
working to bring your peace.
Show us how to magnify, amplify, glorify your name
in all we say and do this week.
We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

 

Good News Congregational Prayer

Thank you, God, for the good news you proclaim every day:
the good news of beauty and life, proclaimed by every creature.
We hear this good news in the song of the red winged blackbird balancing on a reed,
we see it in the green life galloping up in every plant and tree,
we smell it in the damp earth, we taste it in the tang of rhubarb.
Your world, new and fresh each day…
thank you for giving us life and breath to enjoy it.

Thank you for the good news we have been hearing this week;
for those among us who have experienced healing,
for conflicts that have been resolved,
for the hungry that have been fed,
for your work through millions of people,
proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour. 

Forgive us for the times we have
lost hope, lost sight, lost vision of your kingdom come.
We repent of how we have believed
your power to be limited, that there is no good news possible.

We pray for those who are waiting for good news,
waiting for results of tests, or waiting for an operation, or waiting to get better.
There are those waiting for news of a job, waiting for a turn in the economy.
There are those waiting for refuge, waiting for a visa, waiting for residency.
Help us walk with each other in good times and hard times.

Finally, we pray for Israel and Palestine.
We long for good news there;
good news for those who live in fear of terrorist acts,
good news for those who are trapped by a high wall and oppressive laws,
good news for children who need a better future,
good news for a country that has been too long bound by hatred and division.
God of peace, send your peace down on your holy land.

All these things we pray to you,
confident in your mercy to hear,
and your power to act upon them.  In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

 

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.

Call Congregational Prayer

Thank you God for the glorious weather we have had these past few days,
summer lingering for us to enjoy.
Tall trees still filled with dark green leaves with just a hint of yellow,
combines harvesting long golden windrows,
the fragrance of mint in the garden,
the taste of late strawberries,
the touch of cool breezes on skin still heated by the sun's warm rays.
You extend a call to us every day, Jesus, and we thank you for your call to love.
We hear that call again and again,
expressed to us through many kind hands and warm hearts around us.
Thank you for giving us intricate networks of family and friends and church 
who embody your love, and call us to love in return.
Open our eyes to this call, 
which is not narrow, but as wide as the world.
Help us to love, not only theoretically, but practically:
love for refugees in Ukraine and Iraq,
love for those who are sick with the Ebola virus,
love for our neighbours and co-workers,
love for our enemies.
Forgive us for the times we have failed to share your love,
choosing to hoard what is freely given, 
fearful that we have limited resources, limited time...we're too tired.
And then, on the edge of our hearing, comes your voice,
"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, and I will give you rest."
Help us to respond with cheerful hearts as we do your work.
Strengthen those among us who face heavy burdens,
who live with pain; physical, emotional, spiritual.
Holy Spirit, bind us together as we study your word and share with one another.
Multiply your call in us and through us.
Everything we do, we do in the name of Jesus,   Amen.

Crossroads Congregational Prayer

We come to prayer this morning
at the crossroads of summer and winter.
Summer still shines,
asters blooming with yellow and orange vividness,
warm days calling us to walk outside and enjoy the sun,
fresh fruit and vegetables still fill our tables
and delight our tastebuds.
And yet, the nights grow cold,
we see our breath in the morning,
yellow and red creep into the leaves of the trees,
the days get shorter,
the earth tilts
and there’s no stopping the coming of winter.
Thank you for the blessings and beauty of our world! 

We come together as your people,
we gather here in one place, with one heart for worship,
and yet in each of our lives we stand at different crossroads.
The _________ family has stood at the brink between life and death,
as they mourn the loss of ___________.
We pray for them and all who grieve today,
we need your comfort and your peace.
Other people stand at the crossroads of big decisions,
“Should we go this way or that way?” we wonder.
Guide us as we make important decisions about how we spend our money,
which job to take, where to live.
We pray for __________  and __________
who stood at a crossroads in life at their wedding ceremony.
Bless their marriage, and all those who are newly married,
help them forge bonds of love that last a lifetime.
Other older people are at crossroads in relationships;
should we stay together, or separate,
should we seek reconciliation, or walk away;
God of grace, be the one who guides us in all our decision-making.
You know the decisions that our congregation is making,
show us the way, when we are faced with many ways to go. 

As we read the news, we are constantly reminded
that the world stands at a crossroads
with so many refugees from so many war-torn countries.
Lives are in the balance:
open the heart of the world community, open our hearts,
to be generous for these people, to meet their needs.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus,
who walks with us down every road we take, Amen.

God of Gardens Congregational Prayer

God of gardens,
thank you for the garden of [name your area]
for tree peonies and white lilacs,
for graceful yellow tulips, and sweet honeysuckle [name the flowers that bloom in your area]
For fields showing green, for vegetables growing, for fruit setting,
for the whole wide earth waking up and exploding into life before our very eyes,
slow fireworks of green trees and blossoms everywhere we look.

The kingdom of God is like this;
beautiful and rich and many faceted,
blooming in hearts around the world for those who have eyes to see.
The news tells us every horrible thing that happens,
but you bring good news:
that people do love each other, that people do help each other,
that you care for us, that we can make a difference.
Help us to be your messengers of good news,
help us to be good news.

We need this assurance because we are sometimes overwhelmed with bad news,
in our families and our communities.
Forgive us for the times this week that we have been short and angry with those we love,
callous and uncaring towards our neighbours or the people we work with.
Give us open hearts, that grow in love towards every place where love is not.
Give us compassion especially today for those who are grieving,
who feel the ache of loved ones who are no longer here.
Give us compassion especially today for those who struggle with illness
who are undergoing tests, or taking medication
or are afraid to take medication for physical or mental illnesses.

This morning we also pray for our government, our Prime Minister, our Premier,
for the many people who work in public service.
Thank you for their contributions to growing good communities.
At this time where public corruption is so prevalent in the news,
help us as a country to cultivate justice and honesty.
God of gardens, be with us this week,
wherever we grow,
in your name, Amen. 

Gentle Shepherd Congregational Prayer

Gentle Shepherd:
Thank you for the way you have led us to green pastures and still water;
you’ve shown us beauty this week that has fed our souls.
The brilliant green of the budding trees glowing in the morning sun,
the delicate symphony the birds sing each morning,
the caress of the warm sun on our upraised cheeks,
the fragrance of lilac in the evening.

Some of us have walked through dark valleys this week,
and all of us know someone in a dark valley,
valleys of sickness, grief, uncertainty, fear.
You meet us there in the darkness, you protect us.
Our enemies are present in our lives;
forces that would take us away from you.
Pride, envy, hatred, selfishness,
all played out on individual and corporate levels.
We need your help in our lives, forgiving us, encouraging us.
You have heard the concerns of our hearts
that were spoken during our sharing time today,
and you heard the concerns that were unspoken,
which weigh too heavily for us to share them.
We call on you for help; you guide us carefully.

You have provided for our basic needs this week,
thank you for the food we’ve eaten,
for the luxury of variety in our diet,
for the joy of cooking,
for the clean water that comes out of our taps.

You anoint us with oil,
you gift us with grace,
providing unexpected blessings over and over,
encouragement and new strength when we falter,
tender compassion when we are spent.
Goodness and mercy is following us
all the days of our lives.
We give thanks for this good life,
for life and breath this day,
a day to praise and thank you,
we want to dwell in your house forever.   Amen.

(this song can be framed, before or after with the hymn "Gentle Shepherd")

August Benediction

August sun sends its heat

and the earth lays wide.

Flat fields shimmer

tall wheat ripens

the earth bakes.

All creatures seek shade

as the haze builds and thickens.

This summer day

compels repose.

This heat a benediction,

a heavy warm hand

pressing down.