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The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster

Draw near, O Lord. By day, preside over the busy-ness, the day’s tasks, the responsibilities and endeavors that fill our lives. By night, govern our dreams, hold our worries, give peace to our unrest, entrust us to your safe keeping, and permit the gift of sleep to guide us.

As we sense the turning of the year, smudges of yellow and orange emerging on the tips of tree branches, we ask your blessing: bless the school year, bless the still unfolding return to in-person-work, bless the sports seasons that spread before us, bless friendships new and old, bless our families that grow and shift and change in ways expected and unexplained. Be in the mystery of life and death, and hold us in the intermingling of joy and sorrow, no matter the season. In prayer, we seek all in this life that is good and right and faithful. On our knees, we long for healing, thriving, trust, repair and a way through.

Because the world is never fully at peace, we pray for unrest across the globe: where power or water is scarce, where illness overwhelms, where women and children flee for their lives, where the young and old alike remain and take to battle…make way, O God. When violence is daily bread, turn the tides, change hearts, mend and repair: Lord hear our prayer.

Be with our British allies as they grieve their Queen and host their King’s coronation. Be with our Chinese friends and colleagues who find themselves in lockdown again. Be with the Ukrainians in the shifting sand of war. Give us hearts to love our neighbors, bold ways to respond, generous acts of compassion.

Lord, hear our prayer, and hear us as we join our voices praying the prayer Jesus teaches us saying…Our Father….Amen.