Holy One, Shepherd to us all, call us together now in body, mind and spirit. Let us be, in this moment, joined in prayer, so we may amplify with one voice our hope in you. 

Our hope in your creation, our hope in your peacemaking, our hope in your grace. 

Let this hope, which defies all logic, give us strength to carry whatever we hold on this day. 

In the garden of your creation, you said “it is not good that the human should be alone.” So you formed companions for us: partners and helpers, birds and animals, and you asked us to call them each by name. Help us to remember this common origin, to respond from our common humanity when we see our siblings struggle with fire or flood, migration or war. We especially ask your blessing for the lands and the people of Israel and Palestine, of Sudan, of Ukraine. Let your peace reign. 

Help us to remember your joy in creating us and your attention to each living creature, especially for all in this community whose joy is dimmed this day. Whether we await test results or relief from pain, whether we question what joy could be possible in the midst of our grief, Holy God, come now to be a source of joy in resisting our despair. Be with us, be known to us, even as we see both good and evil in our world. 

Teach us, oh God, to be good stewards to the earth from which you formed us, the ground from which we came. Help us to know and to care for this land, to treat it as one of the beings created by you. Show us ways to work across the divisions that mark us in rhetoric, border, or currency. Be with our elected leaders, give them wisdom and courage, and help them to lead for the good of all, not the power of some. 

For your presence on earth, so near to us as to take on flesh, you taught us that where two or three are gathered, in your name, there you are with us. Thank you for gathering us together in your name. We thank you for the opportunity to ask big questions; to ask why? To know, that in all of our grappling and in all of our big questions, you are with us. Not yet with the answers, but with a heart big enough to take all our questions, loving us still.

We pray all of this in the name of the One who taught us to pray saying…