courtesy www.Watton.org
courtesy www.free-animations.co.uk
Please, pray with me now for family and friends and all affected by the recent explosion and shootings in Norway on July 22, 2011:
Dear Father, we know that you are Lord of all...believers and non-believers, alike.
Some of us have faith now...and others are yet to be 'gifted' with it. And sometimes it takes a tragedy like this for us to even begin to contemplate the frailty of our existence.
And so we turn to you in our grief over the Oslo explosion and the Utoya shootings.
We pray that you will help us to accept the unacceptable.
We pray that you will strengthen us to forbear at this time, to render help, to uplift and support those whose loved ones have fallen.
And we ask that you teach each of us, dear God, to be globally compassionate in a way which honors the innocence of the precious lives just taken.
Chasten us to realize how precious life, itself, is...and how, like a candle, it can be snuffed out in a moment.
Teach us discernment, so that we may detect and protect ourselves against those who wish us harm, yet live in harmony despite humanity's many differences.
And, finally we beseech you for peace of heart, for the realization that though the body will decay, the spirit carries on, so that we may learn to make our lives have value and meaning for the short time we walk this earth.
Remind us relentlessly, Father, that love is eternal and that to love we must always turn, no matter the circumstances--
And, so, comfort grieving mothers and fathers and sons and daughters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, brothers and sisters, cousins, extended family, friends and even...pets...left behind at this time in the aftermath of these terrible tragedies.
Surely the world you made for us is big enough that we might all live in harmony!
Do grant us these things, we do humbly pray, O Lord, with tears and fears and trembling hearts as we petition YOU in our individual and universal traditions...
which for Christians is in the Name of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit
AMEN
Reverend Barbara Sexton
"The Biblical Biochemist-Where Science Meets the Cross"
