Special Days Prayers

Commitment Sunday

Thanksgiving

The New Year

Valentine’s Day

Memorial Day

Independence Day

Summer Wonder

Commitment Sunday

Holy one, spirit of creation

of flesh, of mystery,

we gather in worship

as part of the worldwide church seeking

to give birth to expressions of community

that embody your vision for us and for our world.

We gather affirming your presence

in our midst.

Divine mystery,

dwelling place for all people,

dancing energy in our souls,

we offer gratitude

that we are invited to move among the creations

of this world

bringing joy and renewing love.

Womb of all,

as we recognize our national holiday

that honors Christopher Columbus,

may we be reminded

of how blind we can be

to the needs and rights of others

when we discover things

we want for ourselves,

how we can fail

to protect and honor those

whose lives and way of life

may be affected by our own selfish concerns.

We intercede for all

who have suffered from such selfishness.

Compassionate, healing Christ spirit,

we seek your encouragement and guidance

as we offer your message of inclusion and acceptance.

As we seek to build our community

afresh for another year with a vision of liberation and love,

show us the ways

to move from isolation and separation

into bonding relationships of mutuality,

into healing relationships that make possible

reconciliation and new beginnings, into prayer

for the welfare of the alienated and exiled.


Thanksgiving

Generous giver,

with praise and thanksgiving we center ourselves

in your presence,

knowing that thanksgiving is

a true understanding of who we are.

As we prepare for a holiday of thankfulness,

we know much gratitude for the precious gift of life,

and for all the ways our own lives have been encouraged.
We are thankful too

for the gift of the life of Jesus,

for the gift of faith and

our continued hunger to understand and connect to that faith stream.
We know gratitude and joy

as we allow the abundance of creation

to embrace us.
We stand, we sit, we lie

on the good earth and

know she nourishes and heals.

She reveals the cycles of life –

birth, growth, death and recreation –

it is good.
We recognize the sun, source of energy.

We are in awe of its power

to warm and call forth life.

Its radiance speaks of divine power

that has brought all that is into being.
We breathe deeply

the invisible, all pervasive air

which sustains creation.

Oh mysterious spirit,

we believe your breath gives life to our world,

that our breath is prayer for the world.
We are refreshed

as we claim the waters of life,

whose rush announces birth,

water of life that nourishes seed,

cleans and soothes each of us,

reminding us of our thirst to be

in relationship with the source of all life.
Holy one,

we pray that we might express our gratitude for your gift of creation

by walking and living gently in this universe,

that we might learn to protect the earth

and all elements that surround her.

May our gratitude find expression

in our caring.


The New Year

Holy mystery,

initiator of all time and of this time,

we begin a new year

here at your love feast,

this ordinary and simple,

mysterious and powerful

expression of our life in Christ

and with one another.
Help us embrace

the whole meaning of the Christmas story

we just celebrated –

birth, life, death and new life.
We enter a year full of unknowns,

yearning to believe

it is filled with possibility and hope.
It is a good day,

a day for new beginnings,

a day to experience love.
Compassionate one,

we do not want this hope, this love,

to be known only for us present here,

we want to mediate

its joy to others.


Valentine’s Day

Gracious, Holy one,

you invite us to the mountain top

and call us into the everyday.

Our lives move between being and becoming,

yearning to discover the depth of our being

and the totality of our potential yet to be.

We are grateful for your embracing spirit

as we explore and drink deeply

of the sweetness and bitterness of life.

We are thankful that

the being of Jesus revealed, touched and opened ways

to know the fullness and truth of your being.

He encouraged us to risk gladly,

to love wastefully,

to act compassionately.

We have learned that our lives can be rich

with hope and possibility

when we receive your spirit,

welcome your revelation.

Spirit of watchful care,

you have covenanted with us and with our ancestors before us

and promised your graced gifts.

We seek to act out of faith in your promise,

not to shrink back or withhold our prophetic word

offered as your good news,

not to resist the call to full humanity,

not to look for the security of the known

and so avoid the adventure

and challenge of the unknown,

but always to explore ways

we can more fully love you and others.

Source of great love and mercy,

nurture in us the vision of the poet,

the questions of the child,

the boldness of the prophet,

the courage of a disciple

that we may be faithful intercessors in our prayers

and in our lives.


Memorial Day

Compassionate one,

lover of all nations and people,

on this weekend when we remember and honor

those who have been killed in our nation’s wars,

we are confronted anew with

issues of peacemaking in our time.

We see how violence and war

are taking many forms,

fueled by religious intolerance,

historical hatreds and divisions,

poverty and powerlessness,

and by our self-righteousness and fear.

Still our spirits long for

another way.

Receive our prayers of intercession

for all those places

where hostilities rage from within and without,

and for all who need

love and healing.


Independence Day

Creating spirit, giver of all good things,

we thank you for

the natural majesty and beauty of this land in which we live.

They restore us, though we often destroy them.

We ask for healing.

We offer thanksgiving for

the great resources of our nation.

They make us rich in many ways, though we too often exploit them.

Forgive our selfishness.

We are thankful for

the women and men who have made this country strong.

They can be mirrors for us, though we often fall short of their vision.

We seek fresh inspiration.

We offer our gratitude for

the torch of liberty which has been lit in our land.

It has drawn people from every nation to give energy and strength to our common life

though we too often hide from liberty’s light of inclusion.

We need your enlightenment.

We are thankful for

the faith we have inherited in all its rich variety.

It sustains life, though we have been faithless again and again.

We ask for renewal of spirit.

We are grateful for

all the goodness, love and grace in our lives.

Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice and

to abolish violence and economic injustice.

Hasten the day when all our people, with many voices, can

live together in true unity and peace.


Summer Wonder

Spirit of wonder and unlimited vision,

we praise you

for the bounty of the creation that surrounds us

and for all the marvels of life we have known.

Giver of life,

we come in faith and in doubt,

open to your love, truth and wholeness.

Be with us,

hear us as we worship and pray.

Timeless One,

your word called the sun, stars and earth into being,

we stand in awe in your presence.

Breath of the Cosmos,

you have stirred within us

and caused our hearts

to thirst for wisdom, forgiveness, for love and truth.

We stand open to receive.

Gentle one of the earth,

whose arms have held children,

whose eyes have sparkled with laughter,

we come yearning to trust your companionship.

Womb of all, our creator and lover,

we offer gratitude,

for you have given us life,

and we are made in your image.

We are alive with divinity.

We are alive with humanity.

We have been touched by grace.

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Sonya Dyer's Prayer Book
An Interview with Sonya Dyer