God, we offer to you what has been spoken,
what has been left unspoken, and what is too enormous to speak.
We offer you our honesty
knowing that no human emotion or struggle is foreign to you.
God who brings life from death, hear us.
Restorer of life, we trust in your ability to heal.
We open to you the woundedness within us, within our church,
within our nation, within our world.
(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)
God who brings life from death, hear us.
Shepherd, through the most shadowed valley,
we trust in your steadfast love.
We place in your hands our fear, our confusion,
our quickness to accuse,
our despair over the suffering of others,
our reluctance to be led by you.
(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)
God who brings life from death, hear us.
Bring-er of Peace, we trust in your reconciling power.
We lift to you all of those things within us and within our world
that thwart your purpose of shalom.
(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)
God who brings life from death, hear us.
Love that pursues, we trust that you will not let go of your creation.
We remember those who have died
believing that communion with you is eternal;
that nothing can stop your love.
(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)
God who brings life from death, hear us.
We remember all the people of this world:
many faiths, many nations, many cultures.
We are so small, so powerful, so beautiful,
so dangerous, so intelligent, so foolhardy, so compassionate,
so judgmental, so inventive, so instinctive, so hopeless, and so hopeful.
We need you, and we need each other.
Help us to remember that we are all created in your image.
Teach us the kind of love that never lets the other go.
We especially pray for…
(Allow time for silence or intercessions.)
God who brings life from death, hear us.
And now may the Good Shepherd, who brings life from death,
and who makes a way when there is no way,
bless us and make us a whole people.
Amen.
—from the United Church of Christ website.
For more prayers and litanies for the tenth anniversary of 9 11, click on September 11 Worship in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
