Pastoral Prayer for March 17, 2024

Our pastoral prayer this morning comes to us from Ted Loder.

Please allow his words to become your own personal words.

Loving God, this Lenten season is nearly over.

As I approach Palm Sunday and Good Friday,

help me to become vulnerable enough

to dare intimacy with the familiar,

to listen cup-eared for your summons,

and to watch for you in the crying of a hungry child,

in the hunger of street people,

in the rage of those oppressed because of gender,

race, or sexual orientation,

in the smoldering resentments

of exploited third-world nations,

in the sullen apathy of the poor

and ghetto strangled people,

and somehow, Loving God,

during this season of sacrifice,

enable me to sacrifice time,

and possessions, and securities,

to do something . . .

something about what I see,

something to turn the water of my words

into the wine of will and risk,

into the bread of blood and blisters,

into the blessedness of deed,

of a cross picked up,

a savior followed.

Grant to me gladness of heart,

a pitch for a song in a storm,

a word of praise lived,

a gratitude shared,

a cross dared,

a joy received.

Amen.