FCCR-ACE Prayer Blog

Congregationalists Learning to Pray

Yes Lord,

I’ve thought about what should go into this prayer and don’t feel any more directed att he end of this day than I did at the beginning.

So like Julie Andrews sings

‘’‘When I’m feeling blue
Counting my blessings is the thing to do…’‘’

I’m grateful for:
My sons
My husband
Connections
employment
THe idea of Spring being on its way
not being hungry or poor
having stimulating cultural opportunites near by.

My kitties
my health
freedoms
a change in the country’s leadership
many many things that are unspoken.

Amen

Hi God,

My prayer today
is pretty simple.
It seems my father-in-law
isn’t doing so well.

So I would ask you to be with him
and with my mother-in-law
as they face Ervin’s health crisis.
I think Ervin will accept
whatever happens with good grace.
Please help him do that.

Help Marilyn not to fret
about the future
but just to be present to help Ervin
and to remember how well
your presence has guided their lives
for low these many years.

Also, I ask that you have mercy on all souls,
sinners though we all be.

Amen

in so many places in the bible God, we read about being in community with others…where two or three are gathered…
certainly paul had an understanding of the value of community, continuing to encourage and build up communities of faith even after he had moved on…
thank you God for the blessing of others, for those who laugh with us, converse with us, who dare to enter into deep places…
thank you for your presence with us, and thank you for “us”!

amen

Hi God,

Every year about this time,
I get to feeling pretty low.
I’m not a winter person.
Yeah, I know that variety
is the spice of life,
but the variety of winter
I could do without.

That said, I’m grateful
that every year about this time
I start hearing cardinals
on my morning walks with Brewster
and I begin to see Arcturus,
rising in the eastern sky,
on my evening walks with Brewster.
These are both signs
that winter will once again end,
and that I will once again survive.
Is this the kind of thing
Isaiah was talking about when he wrote,
“…but those who look to the Lord
will win new strength…”?

So my prayer today
is that you help us remember
even when things are cold and bleak,
that cardinals will sing again,
that Arcturus will once again rise.
They always have
they always will;
they will come to dispell our bleakness.

Also please have mercy on my soul,
sinner though I never cease to be.

Amen

scripture reference
Isaiah 40: 31

Dear God,

Tonight at my younger son’s school the students are raising money for the Reading Food Pantry by having a “Hunger Feast”.

Please bless the organizers and the particpants with a greater understanding of what it means in these troubled times for a family or a person to find themselves in need of help. Please bless those who aid food pantrys all over the country by running them or contributing when they can.

Please help these students understand that needing this help can happen to all of us in the blink of an eye….

Please help those of us who are not physically hungry in our stomachs realize that when out souls are hungry that you lord are there for us to fill us and that we need only seek you to find ourselves full.

I seek you lord today…

Amen