Pastoral Prayer for March 31, 2024 (Easter)

Our pastoral prayer this morning is from Ted Loder.

Please allow his words to become your own.

It is spring, Lord,

and something stirs in me,

reaching, stretching,

groping for words,

peeking through my defenses,

beckoning in my laughter,

riding on past my fears,

pulsing in my music.

And there is the mystery and the smile of it.

Be with me in my reaching

so that I will touch, or be touched,

this time,

by a grace, a warmth, a light,

to unfold my life to a new beginning,

a fresh budding,

a spring within as well as around me.

O Lord, you have sketched the lines of spring.

Be with me in my reaching.

Thank you, God, for your greatest gift of spring: EASTER.

For this YES

to love and life and laughter,

and to my unwinding self;

for this kingdom – your kingdom –

unleased in me and I in it forever,

and no dead ends to growing,

to choices,

to chances,

to calls to be just;

no dead ends to living,

to making peace,

to dreaming dreams,

to being glad of heart;

for this resurrection surprise

which is wiser than I

and in which I see

how great you are,

how full of grace.

Alleluia!