Prayer during Pentecost (Marc Carson, Syria)

By revjudegeiger

Spirit of Peace, God of Many Names, and One Transforming and Abundant Love,

We gather again in community,

In song and in quiet,

To lay down our burdens for an hour,

To ease the pain of our neighbor,

To welcome hope once more;

May our doors to your Spirit, not remain shut tight.

In the silence, we reflect upon a week gone by,

Of news stories shouting faux outrage over the mundane,

Distracting us from the work before us.

As a community, may we stay focused on the work ahead;

Binding up the broken,

Seeking health for the weak,

Caring for those left behind by systems of oppression and abuse –

May the noise of the politically motivated,

not distract us from the work we are commissioned to do in this world –

To transform ourselves and our world through acts of love and justice.

We hold in our hearts this hour, the people of Syria;

Ravaged by war and revolution to a scale I can not imagine.

May Your Spirit heal what we can not find a way to make whole;

We pray for the family and friends of Marc Carson,

A young gay man murdered on the streets of Greenwich Village last night;

And for all the people on our streets who walk before hateful gazes.

For all our gains,

For all our work,

The struggle is not over.

May our progressive faith be a real means,

To real healing,

In a world so full of need,

For the gifts we are blessed to give.