Pray with us
A General Thanksgiving (Page 836 in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer)
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have one for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
In Prayer we are never "getting a conversation going" with God. We are continuing a conversation which God has begun. In a walk by the river my mood of anxious self-preoccupation is broken by a sudden awareness of the beauty of the sunlight reflected in the water, and the swirling of the birds, and I find myself turning to God in a brief expression of praise and appreciation, I am not starting the conversation with God. God spoke first in the language of creation, wooing me back from isolation into belonging and from anxiety into life-giving awareness. From The Word is Very Near You by Martin Smith How to Pray for People Affected by Conflict How to Pray for People Affected by Disaster How to Pray for People Affected by Poverty