Sunday Prayer

God of Light and Life, we come before you in humility and thankfulness, aware that we are so deeply blessed. May your light and love shine in and through us as we prepare to enter a new year.

We pray for all those whom we have named aloud in this place today, and those whose needs are tucked away in the recesses of the human spirit. God, we are skilled at ignoring our own needs, but sometimes those are the ones most in demand of our time and attention.

Help us as we balance the needs of a hurting world with the ache that hides in the corners of our own souls. Both need your Light. Both are worthy of your blessing. Your grace is more than enough to reach any hurt, any wound, any pain. We give you thanks and praise, O God.

God, we pray that this Christmas will be a time of searching and finding…
…that the baby in the manger will allow us to move from reason to wonder, from intellect to spirit, from doctrine to Mystery – in all its liberating power.
As we observe the child Jesus, remind us God that he has been born again for more than adoration. He comes also to confront and challenge.

May the child in the manger guide us to a greater understanding of our call to be your Light in the world – pointing the way toward freedom from oppression, poverty and fear. May your light shine in us as it shone through Jesus, who taught us to pray together saying…