God of Love, we are so grateful for the opportunity to come to you together as one body to share our joys, sorrows, concerns, and hopes. And to know whatever we bring to you, you wait with eagerness to know what lifts and weighs upon our hearts.

Together we rejoice with those among us who are rejoicing: at the birth of a child, at the joining of lives, at healing from sickness or injury, at the discovery of new passions, in the embrace of old friends. Lord, we are so grateful for the abundance you bring into our lives.

And we mourn with those among us who are mourning: whether it be the loss of one dearly loved, a difficult diagnosis or medical uncertainty, the fracturing of a relationship, or the sudden loss of a job. Lord, we ask you to draw near to the brokenhearted, and to move your people to lend a hand of help or an embrace of compassion.

As we lift our eyes to the world around us we ask that you would break our hearts for the brokenness we find. Help us to be agents of empathy for those our society tries so desperately to ignore. May we see your face in their faces, and not turn ours away, but move toward them as you move toward us.

We ask that you would bring peace to all the places of conflict swirling around us, and grant leaders and decision makers wisdom and concern for the wellbeing of all. We pray especially for escalating conflict in the Middle East, continued war in Ukraine, and so many other places around the globe. May your peace prevail.

As we move through the coming week you would remind us of the deep well of love you have for all you have created, and grant that our lives would reflect your love to the glory of your son, in whose name we pray together as he taught us, saying:

Our Father, 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, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.