By Pauline Loughhead
Lord Jesus, we tank you that we can come to you with our prayers for others.
We pray for all who feel cut off from you, from family and friends, and from their community at this time of social distancing.
Be with us in our isolation and aloneness, and give us reassurances that we are loved and welcomed by you and our families and many friends.
Help us to reach out regularly with a phone call, a video call, a listening ear, an open heart, or a text message so we don’t feel that isolation pressing down upon us, and help us to seek help when we feel depression or loneliness overcoming us.
We pray for all who are living without hope. For the young and older people living on our streets, who feel deserted, for the unemployed who fear they may never work again or find meaningful employment, for those whose work has closed down due to the corona virus, leaving them without an income for the foreseeable future.
And for the elderly who feel forgotten and lonely.
We ask that each may have hope that life can again be meaningful and satisfying.
Loving God, we bring before you all who are in need of your healing touch today. We pray for the terminally ill, that they may experience the fullness of your grace.
We pray for the chronically ill, that your healing touch may be upon them.
We pray for all who despair of ever regaining health- grant them your peace.
And we pray for those known personally to us, who are in need of your loving touch. And we name them in our hearts. May your love and compassion surround them, giving them comfort and strength
Loving God, you call us to pray and work for peace. We ask that your will might be done in every land by all people. We pray for those who direct the course of nations, that they might act with justice and concern for all.
And in this time of the Corona virus pandemic, may we each nation, reach out with care and concern for their safety.
We pray for ourselves, that by the work of the Holy Spirit within us, we might see you more clearly, and that our understanding of you might be broadened and deepened.
Help us not to box you into our limited understanding, but always allow you to surprise us with new glimpses of your nature and character
May we grow in grace that our lives might reflect more adequately your life in us .
Amen