Liturgy

Let us pray.

O God of our hearts,
You yearn to be close to us
that we might know you in every breath,
in every hope, in every relationship.

Meet us this week and
teach us to recognize
the covenant of justice, peace and love
you have written on our hearts.

May your desires become our desires,
your work become our work,
and our community
the place where you are sought and found.

We ask and pray in the name
of the Father,
of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Community Confession

In prayer, let us confess to God as a community.
Lord of our hearts, God of our lives, hear our prayers:
the sighs, the cries, the joys of our deepest thoughts.

We share all our thoughts with you, O God,
knowing that you hear and answer us,
providing us with what is best.
Come, O God, and hear us now.

Lord of all, source of health and healing,
we come to you with worries, concerns, fears, wrongs, and sins.

We seek your compassion,
turning over to you all that separates us from you,
God of our hectic busyness and petty obsessions,
God of our secrecies and our defeats.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.

We pray to you, our God in community, holy in One.
Amen.

Reflection

What are some of the distractions that we seem to engage with more than with God?
How can we close a couple of exit points this week in our relationship with God?

Benediction

Go out, among the outcast and the grieving,
and speak the word of life and hope.
Do not fear, but trust in God’s word.

Watch for the Lord with eager expectation,
and be generous with all God has given you.

And may God respond to your every cry with mercy;
May Christ Jesus take you by the hand and lift you to life;

and may the Holy Spirit build you up in faith, in speech,
in knowledge, in passion and in love.

Go in the name of the Father,
of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Go in peace and live the church.
See you throughout the week.

[Photo by Tommy Forbes @ Flickr]