O Lord our God, when we are afraid, do not leave us to despair. When we are disappointed, do not let us grow bitter.  When we fall, do not leave us lying there. When we are at wit’s end and have run out of strength, do not let us waste away.

Give to us the sense of your nearness. Give us your love which you have promised. Give us the grace to come to you with humble and contrite hearts.

Remind us that your own dear Son comes to all people in despair. Remind us that to overcome our plight he was born in the stable and he died on the cross. Awaken us and keep us awake to acknowledge and to confess him this day!

We come to you, holding before you all the distress and suffering of our time; we confess that we, through our many errors and misunderstandings, have hurt one another. We confess that we have been insensitive to the realities of hunger and homelessness that so many face without the benefit of comfort or care.

Help us, O God, to care for the sick and the mentally ill, the immigrants and the refugees, the oppressed and the exploited, the children who have no good parents or no parents at all.

Help us, O God, to remember our the leaders of our city, our neighborhoods, our state, and country, the leaders of our world. We place before you the judges and elected officials, the teachers and educators, the doctors and nurses in the hospitals. Finally, O God, we entrust to you the preachers and teachers of your Word in the many churches throughout our city and around the world.

O God, fill us with the light of your Son so we may shine so brightly that we come conduits of your grace.  We offer ourselves in the name of Jesus. Amen