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The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster

Open our eyes, O True Rest.
Awaken us, O Morning Song of Love.
Steady us, O Ground of Being.
Shelter us, O One who brings us Home.

For we bear our most fragile selves to your throne of grace.
We who are fraught and frazzled, come to you rarely without ache.
We harbor sorrow, unseen and overflowing.
We surge with imperfections seldom alluded to in polite company.
We deliberately fight to protect our image, assuming that shattering it will completely undo us.
But you see our flaws and draw us nearer.
You see our guilt and overflow with love for us anyway.
You see our errors spill out, and you pour unimaginable mercy upon us.
May such compassion flood into us today.
May the peace of your presence buoy us.
May your nearness draw us into a renewed relationship with you.
When we are wandering, find us.
When we are breaking, mend us.
When we are diminished, comfort us.
When we are raw, console and restore us.

Hold us in the safety of silence, here in this sanctuary of love…

You are the Fountain of Holiness and Giver of Names:
the One who calls to us amid every trouble.
Pave the way.
Set a light on our path.
Be our guide.

As Martin Luther King says, help us to see that “In a real sense all life is interrelated…caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

When a friend’s synagogue in Texas is occupied by fear, hatred and terror, show us how to strengthen our interfaith relationships and love our neighbor more deeply.

When a volcano erupts halfway around the world, help us to remember the web of life that connects us, one to another.

When hospitals overflow with patients sick still with a virus unending, help us to see how we are all bound together.

We rely on one another, God.
Give us energy, imagination, and love
to serve one another with gentleness
and a recommitment to peace.
Amen.