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Holy Week resources and reflections

A prayer for the second summer in a pandemic

Creator of the stars of night:
You time the seasons and the tides,
You set the planets in the sky,
You water the earth with refreshing rain,
And bless us day by day with moonrise and sunset.

Give us, we pray, renewed appreciation for your handiwork.
Whether at home or away, grant us zeal to love our neighbors, 
to lift the downcast and to encourage the faint-hearted.
Redeemer of a suffering world:
You see our sins and frailties with unblinking eye,
You mourn our petty jealousies and unchecked greed,
You weep at our hard-hearted tolerance for injustice,
And offer yourself as our guide, our friend and our savior.

Make us, we ask, into your hands and feet.
As we forge new connections and repair old ones, 
empower us to serve Christ, live Christ and 
be Christ wherever we may be.
Sanctifier of the faithful:
You bless our celebrations and longed-for reunions, 
our birthdays and graduations, our childbirths and weddings.
You meet your children at postponed funerals, 
at the bedsides of the sick and in the lonely hours.
You transform turmoil into peace,
And dry every tear-filled eye.

Refine us and purify us, we beg, 
strengthening us to become more wholly your people,
Loving and beloved, forgiving and forgiven, 
caring and cared for, life-giving and alive.

And at all times, and in all places, draw us ever closer to you, 
the author and finisher of our faith, who lives forever and ever.

Amen.

by Jay Blossom

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