Pastoral Prayer for March 10, 2024

Our pastoral prayer this morning is from Sister Joan Chittister:

Great God, save us from ourselves.

Save us from the vengeance in our hearts

and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,

to punish as we have been punished,

to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge,

to trust rather than to fear,

to try again and again to make peace even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace to be our best selves.

We ask for the vision to be builders of the human community

rather than its destroyers.

We ask for the humility as a people

to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes to bequeath​​ 

to​​ the children of the world to come

more than the failures of our own making.

We ask for the heart it takes.