Noonday Prayer: Justice, Mercy, and Love

Dear Trinity Church and friends,

 

Grace and Peace to you this Saturday afternoon.

 

As we Christians ready for Pentecost, our nation grieves the death of George Floyd and the continuing horrors people of color are suffering under our American flag.  Tomorrow morning at 9:45a we will gather for Morning Prayer and recall when, in the disciples’ great moment of fear, Jesus breathed on his friends the gift of the Holy Spirit.  As we do Sunday after Sunday, we will pray for that same Spirit to inspire us, to heal us, and to make us whole.

 

Next week will then begin the “Season After Pentecost,” that time when we as the Body of Christ decide how we will respond to the Good News of Easter we have celebrated during these last fifty days.

 

To begin this new season, I invite you to join with the Trinity Church community at 12:00p on Monday, June 1, when, in the clearest light of day, we will gather for “Noonday Prayers for Justice, Mercy, and Love.”

 

During Monday’s service, we will continue praying peace for the dead and comfort for the grieving.  We will make room for grief and for anger.  And, together, we will seek hope and peace.

 

As a symbol of the Holy Spirit and as a sign of God’s light in the darkness of these days, we invite you to bring a candle to the service and to add your prayer to our litany, sharing in the Facebook comment thread a photograph of your lit candle and your petition.  As the week wears on, we invite you to add your prayers as you feel called.  For those who will not participate via Facebook, you are welcome to reply to this message with your image, and we will post those photographs as we can through the week.

 

Let us pray for justice, mercy, and love:

 

Holy and merciful God, we know that you sent your Christ to reconcile all people to you and to one another.  So, too, we know your anger at our inequities, and we remember your prophets’ call for us to labor with you for a world of free of tyranny and exploitation, free of bigotry and brutality, free of schism and sin.  We pray that you would strengthen us to confront every injustice, and, transforming our rage into righteousness, that all we do would witness the unconquerable power of your Love.  In the name of Jesus we pray,

Amen.

 

Godspeed,

 

The Rev. Morgan S. Allen

Rector