As we awaken to this new day,
this new season,
this new year:
be for us a sacred home.
Be for us ancient indwelling peace.
Be rest for the weary.
Be great stability amid turbulence.
Be a guide in the snow-tossed landscape.
Meet us in our own wordless silence.
Stir us awake to the embodied encounter of your presence.
Rehearse within us the texture of love.
Untangle the ache in our heart.
Make gentle our unrest.
Hear us as we bring before you our well-worn worries:
the health of our families,
the weight of travel,
the post-holiday clash of grief and joy,
the return to school,
the frazzled responsibilities,
the capacity for more of the same to undo us.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Hear us as we bring before you
the burdens of this moment:
the fire and ice in Colorado,
the rising caseload in hospitals and homes,
the uncertainty of another surge mid-winter.
Lord, hear our prayer.
As we remember Desmond Tutu,
we hear his voice echo across time and place,
saying “hope is being able to see
that there is light despite all the darkness.”
Give us a starlit path.
Show us the morning star.
Let your invisible love jostle us toward overflowing.
And hear us as we pray: Our Father…Amen.