Loving Parent,

Quiet our hearts as we come to you in thanksgiving.
Help us remember the many mercies we have received from you this day and this week.

(silence)

From the many varieties of flowers blooming in the gardens around your world
To the majestic mountain peaks carved over the millennia

From the small kind gestures of friends and family members
To the unexpected help in times of great disaster in our lives

Your mercy, God, is everlasting.

Quiet our active minds as we come to you in petition.

You know the needs of our world more than we do, and you know how mind-numbing it is to hear of hunger and war and threatened ecosystems.

Help us sit in silence, now and this week, so that we can hear what you would have us do today, and tomorrow.

Give us light for the next steps in our lives as we reach out, beyond
our friends, family, and congregation.

Show us now, and each morning, whom you would have us touch with your love, overflowing out of the love we have received from you.

(silence)

And when we feel dried up and empty
Help us come back and sit with you, the source of love and goodness in our lives and the world.

Amen.


Written by Anne Meyer Byler, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Goshen College.