Prayer for a Day of Mourning

Prayer for a day of mourning

Gracious God, we mourn today the events of the pandemic, over which we had no control of its origin. The freedom in nature has thrown a challenge and we mourn our lack of early acceptance of its severe threat to us. We mourn the loss of so many precious lives and we don't accept a fatalistic "it was just their time" diminishing of what their future with us could have been. We thank you God for all of the heroic service which has arisen and the sense of social responsibility which so many have embraced in practicing the necessary precautions.


Today, God of freedom, we mourn the failure of our country to fully practice the enlightened freedom of "justice for all under the law." We ask for grace to resist condemning in sweeping generalizations, even while we ask for genuine repentance in the failure to love our neighbors. We ask for the wisdom to invest in the lives of all our people so that each person can walk, work and live with affirming public dignity. We ask for a free market and free society based upon the creative and free investment in the common welfare of all.

And because we know of our tendency to sin and failure to practice love, we ask that all who are called to be peace officers for the safety of everyone to have the wisdom of restraint. We ask that the gift of Jesus as a people whisperer be given to the leaders in our lives.

God of transforming grace, we mourn the wasted profound energy of discontent and violence. We wished that we could have "gotten the message" in ways less disruptive of our normal patterns. Transform anger and violence and fear into defiant stands for the dignity of everyone. Transform fear based on unwillingness to know and appreciate each other in our differences, into faithful and mutual appreciative engagement.

And may the Spirit of God in this season of Pentecost move over the void, abyss and chaos of purposeless energies and bring us the kind of peace that affirms dignity of everyone to have significant life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.