O Maker of Heaven and Earth, you extravagantly pour out your love upon us to drench and anoint all of creation. It is out of this love that you gave us a home and created an earth of unsurpassed beauty– and called it good.

You continue to recreate and repair this world with that same attentive love, bringing light into what feels like ever-increasing chaos and darkness. So often, we fail to be stewards and caregivers of your creation. Holy One, open us to admire and love the world as you so fiercely and tenderly do.

God, at times we feel cast at sea– unmoored and lost. We lose our sense of direction and your guidance.  Life rolls in wave and wave, and we are trying to catch our breath between each wave. Hush the storms of anxiety in our minds. Calm our hearts so that we might know peace. Let us be still so we can hear your still, quiet voice beckoning us to new horizons.  Help us to place our trust and hope in you—even though that is much easier said than done.

 

Holy Spirit, you are anywhere and everywhere. You are our constant companion while also being in all the places where we cannot go. We uplift to your safekeeping all those you need your healing and abiding presence.  May all your children come to know their belovedness.

• We pray for the 36 people injured during two car bomb explosions in Columbia at a military base near the country’s border with Venezuela. Make your presence known in all the places where life precarious—yet still so precious. May all suffering and surviving in the midst of violence and terror feel the comforting embrace of the Holy Spirit.
• We pray for the people of North Korea as the government warns of a “tense” food situation that arises from extensive flooding, pandemic, and international sanctions. We pray for all who know the pain and exhaustion of what it means to go without food and sustenance. Your creation is so rich in resources, yet such inequities remain when it comes to access to nutritious food, adequate healthcare, education, and safe homes. We repent for the ways we have participated in perpetuating these systems of oppression. Let not our spirits be overwhelmed and our compassion fatigued by the injustices we witness. Help us to hold our leaders and ourselves accountable to care for all who are forgotten and marginalized.
• We pray as tensions rise after the first armed exchange between Hamas and Israel since an 11-day air war in May. We pray for all who worry about the safety of their children and loved ones. God, bring your peace that surpasses our understanding and an end of suffering to all your children. Let us hold onto hope. May we always open our hearts and minds to the possibility of transformation, for you are a God that turns swords into plowshares.
• In the United States, Juneteenth (June 19^th) commemorates when the last enslaved Black Americans learned they were free in Galveston, Texas in April 1865 (two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation). Inspired by this day that marks the liberation of all, let this be a season of repentance, reconstruction, and reparations. Christ, lead us to build a world where we all dwell in peace and harmony and your love binds us to one another and to you. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “no one is free until we are all free.”
• We continue to pray as world leaders emerge from the G7 Nato Summit. May these conversations lay the foundations for relationships and policies that will bring about lasting peace and serve for the betterment of all humanity, not just the national or political interests of a select, powerful few. Help to build bridges over chasms that are too wide for us to traverse on our own.

Eternal God, whose love is from everlasting to everlasting, may your radiance be freed within us and all humanity, most particularly where greed, fear, and desperation have a hold on human hearts and minds. Fill our hearts, use our hands, guide our feet to help build your kingdom here on earth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.