Prayers of the People

God be with you,

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Giver of All Good Gifts, a star of wonder led sages to seek and to find you. We thank you today for all that thrills and rejoices our hearts - all that brings brightness and refreshment to our days. Your grace comes down into our ordinary lives like rain upon a mown field.  You pour upon us your Spirit as showers water the earth. As we begin a new year, we pause to thank you for all the blessings of our lives, large and small.

(Silence for people to offer their thanksgivings)

As those wise men of old offered their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to you, O Holy One, so too do we offer you our grateful hearts today.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

King of kings, leaders from afar came to your crib to pay you homage with kingly gold while King Herod trembled in fear at the threat you represented to his earthly throne.  We bring to your might and to your mercy today all those who live in places of unrest and uncertainty around the world - particularly in Iran, Minnesota, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela.  Give their leaders and ours your justice, O God, and your righteousness, that they may rule your people righteously, serve the poor, and defend the needy.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

God Most High, we gladly raise as spiritual incense our prayers and praises to worship you today.  Shepherd your people gathered in your Church particularly in this community of St. Elisabeth’s, in the Diocese of Chicago, and, in the Evanston Deanery, the people of St. Giles Church in Northbrook and Court, their rector.   Through our worship, our song, our service, our fellowship in you, lift our eyes to perceive your inextinguishable light which shines above and beyond the darkness of these days.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

Holy Child of Bethlehem, yours was a life of gathering gloom.  You suffered, sighed, bled, and died to lead us out of death into abundant life.  You became human that we might become divine.  You know our pain, our grief, our struggles, our falling yet ever striving to rise. You are no stranger to the bitterness of our world and the difficulties of our daily lives. We bring to your compassionate heart all those who are sick, who struggle, who mourn, all those for whom we pray today Sally, Sherry, Aidan, Ben, Sam, Lexi, Charlotte, James, Chuck, Cheryl, and Griffin. Are there other?

Enfold them in your loving arms which were stretched out upon the hard wood of the Cross.   Restore and renew them with your healing, wounded hands.  

Lord God incarnate, we pray to you for those who have died, especially those we now name silently or aloud. (Silence)  Rest eternal grant unto them and may light perpetual shine upon them.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

King and God and Sacrifice, Bright Morning Star, you come to us today in word, sacrament and song seeking to lead us by a different road than those on offer from the rulers of this world.  If we let you, you will guide us to salvation, healing and wholeness.  Open our hearts to seek, find, praise and enthrone you in all of the hopes, loves, and actions of our lives.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.           Book of Common Prayer

Amen.