Summer Congregational Prayer

Our souls magnify the Lord.
Our souls amplify the goodness of God–
we take a good close-up look at all our blessings.
Thank you for plants:
for the deliciousness of fresh lettuce
and the sharp tang of dill,
but also for their beauty, their leafy wonder,
their greenness, their fragrance.
Thank you for the miracle of growth,
for sun and rain which has made them grow
and for the mysteries of photosynthesis.
Creation at work at a molecular level,
converting energy from the sun and carbon dioxide
into organic compounds that we call food,
that we eat, that sustains our life.
Thank you God for plants!
We magnify your goodness,
and take a good close-up look at all our blessings.
Thank you for our families,
for the companionship of people who have known us over time.
Thank you for old uncles and aunts, for young grandchildren, for siblings and in-laws.
Thank you for the variety of personalities in our life,
the way they challenge us, change us, endear themselves to us.
Love at work at the everyday level,
converting our everyday world into an ordered world,
filled with harmonies and disharmonies,
a symphony of relationship.
We magnify the Lord, and proclaim your lordship over our broken world.
Give us eyes to see how you are tending to that brokenness,
how you would use us to address poverty in our own community,
how you would use us to address loneliness in our own community,
how you would use us to address racism in our own community.
We proclaim you Lord over our lives,
forgive us for the times where we have gone our own way,
narrowing our vision to only our own interests.
We have neglected the work that you have for us.
Help us as a church to be clear about our mission here,
faithful followers of Jesus, together,
working to bring your peace.
Show us how to magnify, amplify, glorify your name
in all we say and do this week.
We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.