Prayers of the People

God be with you,

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Maker of all things, you created the heavens and stretched them out, you spread out the earth and what comes from it, you give breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk on it.   We pray to you for this world and all its peoples particularly in places of war, disease, unrest, natural disaster or political oppression.  We lift to your power divine and sacred heart in a particular way today the people of Iran, Sudan, and Ukraine.   In a world so filled with war and violence, we thank you for the witness of all your blessed peacemakers - particularly the group of Buddhist monks making pilgrimage from Texas to Washington D.C.   Implant in us and in all our leaders a love of just peace, a commitment to costly compassion and a desire to pursue understanding rather than power.    Let your unending mercy shine forth from on high and never cease to dwell among us, driving away the gloom of death, destruction, and division.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

God of glory, we raise songs of thankfulness and praise to you today for all the wonders which you unfold in our lives.  We are grateful for the many mundane means by which you lift the veil of sin and grief and bestow upon your people a wreath of grace and robes of joy.   You call us to join you in this work and seek to make us a healing light to the nations.  We come together to worship you in the beauty of holiness and we bind unto ourselves again today the strong name of the Trinity, the Three in One and One in Three, in whose holy name we in the Church have been baptized.  Strengthen all who seek to follow you in this parish, in this diocese and, in the Evanston Deanery, the people of the Church of St. James the Less in Northfield and Megan their rector.  Keep us faithful to our baptismal promises that we may renounce and resist evil and offer lives of prayer and service.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

Lord of heaven and earth, your promise is our treasure and our song.  In joy and love, we glimpse your purposes for us.  In difficulty and pain, you comfort and restore us.   Take by the hand and keep in your care all those who are sick and suffering, all in despair and grief or any other kind of trouble, particularly Sally, Sherry, Aidan, Ben, Sam, Lexi, Charlotte, James, Chuck, Cheryl, and Griffin. Are there others?

Give strength to your people.  Give to your people the blessing of peace.  Comfort and restore them, O Lord.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

Jesus, our companion and our guide, you journey with us into the fullness of our humanity even into the deep waters of death. We pray to you today for those who have died, especially those who we now name silently or aloud. (Silence)  Draw them - and us - through the night into your abundant light and life.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

                        Silence

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.          BCP

Amen.