Here’s a beautiful Lenten pastoral prayer, written by Sonya Dyer.
Prayer for Lent
Holy mystery,
we offer praise for the slowly warming winds
and for the lengthening of daylight hours
calling forth the blossoms of springtime,
for the re-creation of hope and growth.
We are filled with gratitude
for the changing rhythm of the natural order
and the ways it brings nourishment and joy.
We give you thanks,
O gracious one,
for you have touched our soul.
You have loved us from the moment of our conception
and held us in grief and happiness.
As we travel our path,
call us forth from the prisons and bondage
we have created
by our narrow patterns of being and believing,
our limited acceptance of ourselves and others.
Show us a way through our wilderness.
Most generous lover
grace us with your presence.
You welcome us home.
You awaken our slumbering hearts
to the fullness of our humanity
so that we may claim our awesomeness
and fragile beauty.
We seek to be encouraged by your truth
so that we might restore compassion
to the human family,
renew the face of the earth and
give expression to your light
in the midst of the world's wilderness.
Christ spirit, in these days of Lenten prayer,
stir up our dream of true peace with justice.
We believe prayer to be a radical act of faith,
a spirited give and take with ultimate mystery.
Show us the ways to give speech to the longings
of our world and of ourselves and
to extend that speech into action.
— from Sonya Dyer’s Prayerbook, posted on the Seekers Church website. http://www.seekerschurch.org/
For more resources for Lent, click on Lent in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page. For more prayer resources, see the Scriptural Prayer Index at the upper right side of the page.
