Blessed are you, O God, creator of the universe and
giver of all good gifts to your children.
Today, we pray, that we may have the consciousness
of Jesus Christ in our lives.
We desire to be aware of you as he was aware of you
and to love the people around us
as you in and through Jesus have loved us.

We pray
to know your heart of love,
to know the glory of your righteousness,
to know your infinite concern for all people
to know about the imbalances and injustices of life.

O God,
we want to share in his vision of the kingdom:
to reorder our lives
to reorganize our priorities and
to redeem our fallen human institutions.

But we know this is dangerous, O God.
We know that to pray this way is to invite upon ourselves the
possibilities of being transformed into the image and life of
Jesus himself:
of being called to specific forms of ministry,
of being labeled narrow minded,
of being thought of as brash or blasphemous or even
crazy,
of being despised as troublemakers,
of being nailed to a cross.

O God, we have begun to realize
that creating a world of love and justice is not easy.
We confess that we cannot do it on our own power.
But you, O God, have suffered over it for centuries.
Give us, we pray, the courage and resolution to join you, and
not counting the cost, become partners with you in your work
of redemption
Let us be a part of what you are blessing.

We pray that you
Let the desires that were in Christ Jesus be in us
Let the mind that was in Christ Jesus be in us
Let the love that was shown by Christ Jesus be shown through us
that being united to Christ,
we shall reveal to the world around us the dream you have for your creation,
that we all may be one, sharing life and love and possessions,
until we are caught up in the joys of your kingdom.

O God, make each of us, more like you
all to your glory and our good
as we offer ourselves to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.