Here’s
a prayer of confession and dedication 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!
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 and Dedication:
Spoiled Children
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.
