March 29, 2020 - a prayer to use for the day, taken from: Every Moment Holy (2017) by Douglas Kaine McKelvey.  (This is a book of liturgies for the ordinary events of daily life--liturgies such as "A Liturgy for Feasting with Friends" or "A Liturgy for Laundering" or "A Liturgy for the First Hearthfire of the Season." These are ways of reminding us that our lives are shot through with sacred purpose even when, especially when, we are too busy or too caught up in our busyness to notice.)  My thanksgiving to a friend who shared this book with me. 

I suggest, especially since this is in a responsive reading format, that you read the Leader's part (not in bold), then think about the question or thought that is posed before reading the People's response (in bold).  In such a manner there is no way for you to just read it without actually praying it.

The Hours: Daybreak

Leader: O children of the Living God, what is your Father’s greatest desire for you this day?

People: That we should love our eternal King with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds and with all our strength.

And how would you show this love?

By remembering him at all times.

By cultivating thankfulness for his many blessings, and trusting his good providence for the meeting of our needs. By loving all whose lives intersect our own. By choosing to serve rather than to be served, to be wounded rather than to wound, and by bearing patiently with the failings of others, extending the same kindness, mercy, and compassion that God in Christ has so graciously offered us.

We would also love him by serving with faithfulness and due passion in our various vocations, by delighting in all things he has created for our benefit and pleasure, and by caring well for all he has given us to steward.

O children of the Living God, you would do well to practice your love in these ways today!

Do you now possess the needed strength to perfectly accomplish such holy requirements?

We do not. We are weak and inconsistent, and often buffeted by fear and pride and selfishness. But being impoverished and ill-equipped as we are, we will look to the grace of God and to the sanctifying work of the Spirit to accomplish his purposes in and through us this day, as we, in grateful response, seek to choose that which pleases him.

We open our hearts anew to you this morning, O Lord, that the love of the Father and the life of Christ and the breath of the Spirit would quicken within us a greater affection for your ways.

Work your will in us, Lord Christ.

Let us now bring before our gracious God any petitions relevant to this day.

O Lord, hear our prayers.

NOW OFFER SPECIFIC PRAYERS

O children of God, casting your cares upon his strong shoulders, now surrender your own agendas for this day, and instead be led by the workings of his Spirit.

Open our eyes and our hearts, O Lord, to your words and truth.

May these words of God bring to each of us conviction, challenge, and comfort, as our lives and choices this day require.

Shape us even now, O Lord.

Prepare our bodies for the labors of this day.

Give us strength and health to complete them.

Prepare our minds for the demands of this day.

Grant us clarity, creativity, and discernment.

Prepare our souls for those sorrows and joys and celebrations and disappointments we will encounter, that every circumstance would serve only to draw us nearer to you.

May our words, our choices, and our actions today be offered as true expressions of worship.

Now you who are loved of God, step forward into this new day appointed by him, that you might journey through its hours in the peace and the grace and the love of your Lord.

Lead us this day, Lord Christ, that we might walk its paths in the light of the hope of our coming redemption.

Amen.