Prayer for Ourselves and Others

Companion God,

We know that we pray for ourselves even during our prayers for others. Whom can we say that we are not?

We pray for the poor, not just in words but in actions. And if some of us are not without money, we know ourselves to be poor in spirit – poor in compassion, poor at forgiveness, wanting in patience, lacking in generosity….We know ourselves to be poor in some of these ways at times in our lives. And probably will be again.

So we pray for ourselves and pray that we will share our resources not only concentrating on ourselves, but that we will use our resources to examine and change the poverty we recognise all around us.

We pray for the homeless. We may not have experienced having “nowhere to lay our heads”, but we have all experienced not feeling at home, not feeling secure in our place in a loved one’s heart, not feeling as if we belonged. And this gives us an ability to at least begin to understand the huge sense of vulnerability in so many aspects of the lives of the homeless.  And made even more severe by the vicissitudes of war and terror on the streets.

So we pray for ourselves and pray that we will share our resources to change the face of homelessness in our city and world.

We pray for the orphaned. We may not know the sense of having no family, but we everywhere view the strength and weaknesses of families, know intimately the strengths and weaknesses of our own families, and know that love, confidence, resilience, deeply shared sentiments, shared laughter and comfort are some of the unfathomable prerequisites for a manageable life.

So we pray for ourselves and those without family support.  And pray that we will share our resources to change the situation of those who do not have family to rely on in whatever circumstance.

We pray for the violent. We are horrified by violent acts and then remember our fury, our antagonism, our vengefulness, too many blunders to name,

and wonder how we can feign to not know where violence comes from, how it can be practiced by so many people, how we fail to recognise so much of it.

We pray for the laughers. Who laugh a lot through all of this.

Help for our world is practiced by so many sacrificial people and ordinary people.  Help us to choose to be among them more.

Amen.