Here’s
a prayer of confession from Jan Berry’s collection of prayers, Bread of
Tomorrow. It came to mind when working through the gospel reading for
Proper 23B:
“But Jesus said to them again,
‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the
kingdom of God.’” Mark 10:24-25
Prayer of Confession
God,
You heap your love upon us
like
a parent providing for a family’s needs,
embracing
a child with tenderness.
Forgive
us
when,
like spoiled children,
we
treat Your generosity as our right,
or
hug it possessively to ourselves.
Give
us enough trust to live secure in Your love
and
to share it freely with others
in
open-handed confidence
that
Your grace will never run out. Amen.
~
Copyright © Jan Berry, England, in Bread of Tomorrow: Prayer for the
Church Year, ed. Janet Morley (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992),
p. 147. Used by permission.
