FCCR-ACE Prayer Blog

Congregationalists Learning to Pray

Hi God,

Today is Memorial Day,
or as my Dad would say,
until his last breath,
Decoration Day.
We’re supposed to honor
fallen war heroes.
Initially it was just
Civil War heroes—
we decorated their graves—,
but, since we can’t wean ourselves
from making war,
Memorial Day expanded to include
those lost in all subsequent wars.
We’ve had so many of those.

While I have a problem
with the making of war,
as you well know,
I don’t much have a problem
with giving honor to people
who died while doing what
they thought was the right thing to do.
I do have a problem with the people
who mislead them into the war.
And even more so,
I have a problem with the people
who like to make speeches on Memorial Day,
in front of the cameras and news photographers,
but who don’t seem to think that
honoring the fallen
requires them to honor
the injured whom their follies
have left behind.

So my prayer today
is that you help us to honor
those who have fallen in service to our country
by taking care of those who were injured,
either in body or mind,
while they were doing what they thought
to be service to their country.
If the taking care of these people
involves paying higher taxes,
I pray you’ll help us to accept with good grace
that paying these additional taxes is another way
we can honor our fallen and injured.

Amen

Dear god

Thank you for this beautiful weather and help me to remember it this summer when the heat is getting me down and next winter when the snow and ice turn me into one whiney witch.

Thank you god for the security I have in my home and in my family.
Thank you for bringing folks from other places into my life to enrich and reward me with their experiences.
Thank you for my health and the health of my family.
Thank you for memory and help me not lose my memories and the capacity to remember or if I do help me to be pleasant in the moment…

I suppose God that would be one of your chief ironies wouldn’t it….I mean to take away the ability to remember from a woman who likes to plan and try to control what is going on around her…. Help me to appreciate irony

Amen

Dear Lord,

Thank you God for parking spaces even when they are tight ones in the city…

see when the parking space shows up on the street just as we arrive it removes one of the impediments to actually going into the city and the memory becomes one of the good times had instead of the nuisance of trying to find a place for the car….

Thank you God for the good weather on Bike to work day….

see when it is not raining or cold or too windy or any of the other EXCUSES we can find the energy and enthusiasm to actually ride a bike the 15 miles to work in the morning and being able to prove to ourselves that it is not impossible is certainly a blessing we would not find if all those impediments had been in our day.

Thank you God for this medium of communication…

with you and with our community..see by having this at the tips of our fingers it removes the impediment of being too busy or not wanting to bother a friend when they are busy….

Amen

Any day with you is a beautiful day…

Today my mind awaked to an old song which brings to mind
church camp and sitting around the campfire singing..
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah (no worries about being
politically correct in the early 60’s, I guess).
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah.
Kum ba yah my Lord, kum ba yah,
Oh, Lord, —kum ba yah—.
Someon’s crying, Lord…
Someone’s singing, Lord…
Someone’s praying, Lord…

What fond and powerful memories music can bring to our days..
Thank you, God, for the ability to remember and feel, again,
the power of words and music to bring you closer..
and thank you for those who introduce these into our lives..

amen

Thank you, God, for my two mothers, both blessedly still with us.
Thank you for the countless persons who have and still do “mother” me
without being my “mother”.
Thank you for those who mother the orphans, the cast outs,
the blegered, those in pain and anguish.
Thank you for the loving, mothering spirit you placed in each of your children.
amen