(Adapted creatively from
the Book of Common Prayer)
Almighty God, you proclaim your truth
in every age by many voices:
Direct, in our time, we pray, those who
speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do
their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound,
and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. Open
the eyes of all who see and the ears of all who hear so that they
might readily discern the truth.
Lord, who sits enthroned in
righteousness and judges what is right:
We come boldly to your Throne of Grace
and ask you to bless the courts of justice in this land, and give all
who play a role in the court the spirit of wisdom and understanding
that they might discern the truth. See to it that they will
impartially administer the law in the fear of You alone, through the
One, our Savior who judges all. All truth is Your truth.
Almighty and most merciful God, we
remember before you all poor and neglected persons whom it would be
easy for us to forget: the homeless, the destitute, the old, the
sick, and all those who have none to care for them. We pray for
those who are harmed and abused. We pray for children who have no
voice and no means to help or to protect themselves from harm –
that you will deliver them and will bring them justice. Bring them
into safety and restore them. Heal them so that you will shine
through the brokenness they know so well. Let their healing
refashion their pain like a master craftsman creates a mosaic of
stained glass, transforming their pain into beauty through which you
can shine to bring glory to Your Name.
Help us to minister to those who are
broken in body or in mind or in spirit that they might be healed.
Turn their sorrow into joy. Turn our sorrow into joy. Transform the
ashes of what so many have suffered into creative beauty as you
glorify your Name in the process. Only you can take a broken vessel
and reform it again, that master potter who can make us anew. Grant
this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for our sake became poor,
Jesus Christ our Lord. He was wounded and bruised for us that we
might be made whole and delivered from harm.
Look with pity, O Lord, upon the people
in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as
their constant companions. Have mercy upon us as you bring justice,
as we need justice before we can be shown mercy. Justice allows your
righteousness to shine like the dawn, and once justice has come,
mercy can follow. Triumph in all. Help us to eliminate cruelty to
our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing
equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And
grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of all of the
riches of the land.
Lord Jesus, for our sake you were
condemned as a criminal. Visit our jails and prisons with your pity
and judgement. Remember all prisoners and bring the guilty to
repentance. Remember those who work in these institutions; keep
them humane and compassionate; and save them from becoming brutal or
callous. And since what we do for those in prison, O Lord, we do for
you, constrain us to improve their lot. Let this not be any negation
of justice and truth and what is right for those who have been
wronged. It is Your will that all men would come to repentance, and
we ask for contrition and a broken spirit to come about in the hearts
of the guilty. Open their eyes to see and their ears to hear the
truth about their lot, that when their day to stand before You comes
to give an account, that they might have made all things right while
You could be found and while You were near.
Let tragedy have not been for naught.
Let us glean from the heartache and death some message of hope and
life for others who might be in harms way. Take what was meant for
evil or what became evil and transform it into something that can be
used for good that many might be saved. Let them be saved in body
and mind and spirit. Buy back what has been taken and restore what
has been destroyed. Let the seeds that have fallen into the ground,
trampled and crushed, become life and faith somehow. Transform
disdain and hatred into love and care, as only you can do.
Spare the Lydias and the Hanas of this
world the pain of death. Comfort the Zariahs and the Immanuels of
this world with your loving kindness as they sort through the rubble
of their pain to find themselves and to find You in the love and
comfort that comes to them through others. God of all comfort, show
Yourself to them in tender strength and precious power. They know
the fellowship of suffering. Let them come to know the power of new
life in the whole of their lives.
In the Name of Jesus, we pray.
Amen, Amen, and Amen. (Let it be so.
It is true.)
