Pastoral Prayer for September 8, 2024

Our pastoral prayer today is from Ted Loder. ​​ Please allow his words to become your own.

O God,

let something essential and joyful happen in me now,

something like the blooming of hope and faith,

like a grateful heart,

like a surge of awareness

of how precious each moment is,​​ that now, not next time,

now is the occasion

to take off my shoes,

to see every bush afire,

to gulp the air as sweet as wine

until I’ve drunk enough

to dare to speak the tender word:

“Thank you;”​​ 

“I love you;”

“Let’s live forever beginning now.”

I teeter on the brink of endings:

some anticipated, some resisted,

some inevitable, some surprising,

most painful;

and the mystery of them quiets me to awe.

In silence, Lord, I feel now

the curious blend of grief and gladness in me

over the endings that life brings;

and I listen for your leading

to help me faithfully move on through the​​ fear

of my time to let go

so the timeless may take hold of me.

Amen.