Dear Deborah,

Oh Great Mystery, hear our prayers today. Help us remember your call to love one another— family, friends, neighbors, and enemies alike. Grand Creator, from whom we come and to whom we shall return, make your loving presence in our lives known. Wrap your love around us today as we face both wonder and terror. Guide our hands so that we may offer our unique gifts to this world. Loving God, remind us that we can feel you in the embrace of another. That we can hear you in the songs and melodies that are sung with the human voice. That we can see you in the beauty and the glory of the nature around us, in the sacred geometry, in the rainbows and the flowers and the soaring mountains and powerful seas. That we can experience you in the joyful giggles of a child.

Call us to live more fully into you, for we are you and you are us. May we be wisdom teachers in your name, may we use our hands to heal, may we use our gifts to create, may we use our words to nourish and lift up love. Oh Nameless One, these are trying times and our souls are weary! We ask you to pierce the hearts of those who create war and pain and suffering with swords of compassion, may there be peace in their hearts! May they choose love over hate! God we ask for those who are fighting for their lives, their safety and their homes to be filled with strength and fire and for them to know they are held in your loving presence. We pray for the children the women and the grandmothers and grandfathers and all the people and all countries who are experiencing war and violence. May peace prevail!

We pray for all people who suffer under oppression that they might be free. We pray for those who are marginalized who have to work harder just to live in this world. We pray for the people who come to our borders and ask that you soften the hearts of our leaders so that we may welcome all with love and grace and generosity. We pray for those who are without homes or food or security that they may find that their needs may be met. We pray for those who are sick, who are tired, and who are feeling hopeless that they may know they are loved and that we do your work in supporting them with our friendships and our offerings.

~ Rev. Deshna Shine