Good Shepherd,
We are a small flock of Your disciples meeting here in this little room. We come with our questions, our doubts and suspicions, our fears and worries. We come with a hunger to know the truth.
Wise and loving God:
Sometimes we have come to you like little children with broken toys to be fixed. Many times you have healed our broken hearts and frayed relationships.
Each one of us, O God, is burdened with the sheer weight of our private worlds: our health, that of a loved one, our jobs, our relationships.
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O God, so awesome yet so near:
We come to this room tonight with hearts that love You, with hearts that love a book that tells us about You, with hearts that love the Church which has taught us about You.
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Over and over again in the gospels we find Jesus face to face with a person in need of healing, in need of reconciliation with God, a person whose soul is burdened.
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Come to us, God of peace.
Come with your healing and your reconciling power.
Come, that fear may be cast out by love;
In ancient times a woman from the streets of Bethany, emboldened by faith and gratitude, came into Jesus’ presence carrying a jar of fragrant nard.
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Lord Jesus, whom we call Christ, hear our prayer:
We have finished the book. Were you here, reading over our shoulders? Listening to our comments? What do you think?
O God
We have said, “Your word is a lamp for our feet, a light for our path.” Sometimes it seems more like a flickering candle.
Leader. O God, You created us and gave us life, but for what purpose? We live
and work, but to what end? Like children bringing their broken toys,
we lay here before You our lives in need of mending.
O God, in whose image we are made,
Be in the folding of our hands, the bowing of our heads, the closing of our eyes, that we may be conscious of Your inward presence.
O God, You sent Jesus to teach us about Your love. He showed us that it included the children, whom the disciples would have turned away. Today we pray that we, too, can learn to gather them to our knees, lay our hands upon them and bless them.
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O God, Infinite and everlasting!
By what name shall we call you? Being human, we have only human words to use.
O God
We have said, “Your word is a lamp for our feet, a light for our path.”
Sometimes it seems more like a flickering candle.
