Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe,
for your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
We give you thanks,
for you create with a word,
and you sustain all life with your own breath.
We give you thanks,
for your abundance is beyond our imagining,
providing enough for all—
enough food, enough water, enough time, enough love
for every person, for every creature, for every blade of grass and drop of water.
We give you thanks,
for when we have been unfaithful to you,
still you have always been faithful to us.
You have called us over and over,
even when we have turned our back on your way.
You walked among us in your Son,
living our life,
dying our death,
and rising to prove your power of love is greater.
Where still the powers of this world hold sway,
we pray for your grace to be known again this day.
Where there is hatred, make us your seeds of love.
Where there is illness, let your healing power flow free.
Where there is fear, make us beacons of your light.
Help us, O God, to reflect your glory into the world,
our every action and word rising from your love.
When we are tempted to keep silent in the face of injustice,
give us courage to speak out.
When we would prefer to explain things away,
give us courage to see what you would have us see.
When we are on the cusp of giving in to our own ideas about you,
reveal your true self to us again in the breaking of bread,
and nourish us in the life of your Spirit.
Here at your feast of life,
we join all those women who have been blamed for an abuser’s behavior,
all those children who learned not to cry,
all those men wondering if they are alone.
We break bread with people who have known heartache,
and with people who have caused it,
and join together in praying for your will to be done, not ours.
As we come to your table,
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
flawed and faithful each in their own ways,
remake us into your body yet again,
loving, serving, and caring for the world.
We pray these and all things in the name of the One who proves your faithfulness, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray together…
Submitted by Rev. Teri Peterson, the Presbyterian Church of Palatine, IL
recent comments