Morning Prayer for Friday, 24 July 2020
Good Morning, my Cornerstone Family, and welcome to seekers and wanderers who have arrived at our website today.
We give thanks for this new day and join in prayer for ourselves and our world as we set about our daily rounds.
Beginning today, covering your face is required in shops –
how strange that something once prohibited (no hoodies, no helmets, etc) has become the order of the day.
The pandemic has turned our ‘normal’ upside down.
It’s no longer possible to say hello with a brief movement at the corners of your mouth: a smile now requires real effort!
Lord, we are learning how to live in ways different to those we have known before.
Help me learn to smile with my eyes –
to work at true engagement with everyone I meet today –
and be open to meeting the new with enthusiasm.
Amen
Jeremiah wrote about change. He talked about moving to the future, away from the hard times:
Hear the word of the Lord, you nations;
proclaim it in distant coastlands:
“He who scattered Israel will gather them
and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.”
For the Lord will deliver Jacob
and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord –
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
and they will sorrow no more.
Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
Jeremiah 31: 10–13 NIV ®
Lord, we pray for the unsung heroes of our community:
the interested neighbours who make sure we’re OK,
the teachers who have managed to keep in touch with their pupils,
the drivers and shelf-stackers, veg growers and pickers
who have all had to learn to be someone new over the past six months.
We pray for the health and care workers under pressure still
to use their skill in new ways and continual service.
Refresh them all on this new day.
Amen
Lord, we pray for the elected and appointed people who organise and arrange our community life:
the Members and Officers of our Council, the Government, Civil Service and representatives in Parliament.
Give them the spirit to seek out new ways of being society
so we may tread less heavily in his world and seek the best for all and in all.
Amen
Lord we pray for the holidays:
– for school children released from the mechanics of digital classes and e-mail
lessons
– for ‘staycationers’ who can put aside effort of work and enjoy a well-earned lie-in
– for people whose employment allows no respite.
Refresh them all, bring them clarity from confusion and grant them all your peace.
Amen
Lord not only is this new day requiring of me new ways,
it will also be a day of unknown encounters and likely fear;
a day of possible confusion!
Lord help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today
that you and I together can’t handle.
Amen
