Prayers

Prayer is a way to connect internally and externally. Prayer can be a struggle or a gift. Prayer can just be. Please join us in prayer.

“Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend.”
– Ellen White

Prayers Written by Pastor Jeff

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Abundantly loving God, you fill me with the gifts of life and love, you prepare before me a table that holds all of the things I need. For each pain or hurt, you provide a healing touch or blessing that reaches every part of my being. You bring me the experiences necessary for my spiritual growth. You call to me from the depth of my own being and you flash before my eyes in the beauty of the world. You, God, look at me through the eyes of those who love me and you release your compassion and truth to me during my time of need. You meet me in ways that I cannot know, yet I do know that your invisible presence never leaves me. For the gifts I can acknowledge, I give thanks. For the gifts I am unable to know, I give thanks. For the gifts of life, of love, of truth, of your presence, I give thanks, humble thanks, for all of the ways your grace strengthens me. And I give thanks, God, for the revelation of your love in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer for Inner Peace

I struggle, God, to know all the ways your peace comes to me. If only I could have eyes to see and understand and ears that hear the fullness of your sound. I turn my attention to you, I offer my mind, but then, I know that I must turn my whole being to you. In my turning toward you God I seek to understand your peace in the midst of the awkward, loud, sudden sounds that rise up inside of me. My body may be calm, but my emotions take me on a roller coaster ride. May I find that still, small moment of calm that can expand into all of the places I find myself during the day. May your peace be like the life that flows through my body touching every sense I experience, and may it spread to everything I touch with my eyes, my words, and my hands. Amen.

Prayer of Offering

Each day, when I open my eyes, I offer all that I see to you. When I stand up, I offer myself to stand for all that is good and true. When I lie down to rest, may all of my work be added to the work of your love. May the light that falls on me be reflected perfectly as your light, and may the darkness that surrounds me at night be an offering to you of my rest. I give my life so that the beauty of all life may be understood as the gift of your life to creation. Let the wind of my breath mingle with the holy spirit of your rhythm in nature that the world becomes an offering of glory made with thanksgiving. Amen.

Richard Rohr’s Thoughts on Prayer

“The traditional and most universal word to describe a different access to truth was simply ‘to pray about something.’ But that lovely word ‘prayer’ has been so deadened by pious use and misuse that we now have to describe this different mental attitude with new words. I am going to introduce a different word here, so you can perceive prayer in a fresh way, and perhaps appreciate what we mean by contemplation. The word is ‘resonance.’

Prayer is actually setting out a tuning fork. All you can really do in the spiritual life is get tuned to receive the always present message. Once you are tuned, you will receive, and it has nothing to do with worthiness or the group you belong to, but only inner resonance and a capacity for mutuality (Matthew 7:7-11).”

– from The Naked Now: Learning To See As the Mystics See

The New Zealand Anglican Lord’s Prayer

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bear, Life-giver, Source of all that is and at shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, and whom is heaven: The hallowing of your name echo through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth. With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.

– From The New Zealand Book of Prayer, 1898, designed by the New Zealand Salvation Army. honoring the New Zealand Anglican Church and the impact that Maori and Polynesian culture has had upon it.

Womanist Lord’s Prayer

Our Mother, who is in heaven and within us. We call upon your names. Your wisdom come. Your will be done. In all the spaces in which you dwell. Give us each day sustenance and perseverance. Remind us of our limits as we give grace to the limits of others. Separate us from the temptation of empire. But deliver us into your community. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen.

– by Rev. Yolanda Norton, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, and Eugene Farlough Chair of Black Church Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father (or “God” or “Creator”), who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our (debts/trespasses) as we forgive (our debtors/those who trespass against us.) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

– from the Ladera Community Church Sunday Worship Experience