NIGHT PRAYER: Thursday 11/7

NIGHT PRAYER: Thursday 11/7



 I posted this about a year and a half ago but it seems just the prayer we need this week…

the whole world stands in such great need of healing:
    nations take up arms against their neighbors,
    my country’s split in half by the elections results
        and by partisan hostilities,
    my church is torn by discord, scandal and mistrust

and here, close to home,
    my own heart begs your healing touch
        for my family, for my friends and for myself…

We’re broken and fearful, wounded and guilty,
    sick and haunted by sorrow, pain and loss:
       we’re all in need of your healing, Lord…

Your love runs deep and your mercy is endless

– but how or why or when you’ll heal us

is something we can’t measure:
    it’s a mystery, a gift for which we pray,
    a blessing we hope will touch our lives… 

Help us patiently trust
    that your healing’s at work,
    that your Spirit is mending us, body and soul,
    that the peace we pray is the gift you offer
        and the gift you offer, the peace that heals…
We need your healing, one and all,
    in every corner around the world
in every place, Lord, in every heart
    we need your holy, healing touch…


Protect us, Lord, while we’re still awake

    and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace…


Amen.



(Tonight’s song is based on the Scottish folk tune Ye Banks and Braes.

May these powerful lyrics become our own prayer for healing…

We Cannot Measure How You Heal  

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We cannot measure how you heal

or answer every sufferer’s prayer,

yet we believe your grace responds

where faith and doubt unite to care.

Your hands, though bloodied on the cross,

survive to hold and heal and warn,

to carry all through death to life

and cradle children yet unborn.



The pain that will not go away,

the guilt that clings from things long past,

the fear of what the future holds,

are present as if meant to last.

But present too is love which tends

the hurt we never hoped to find,

the private agonies inside,

the memories that haunt the mind.



So some have come who need your help

and some have come to make amends,

as hands which shaped and saved the world

are present in the touch of friends.

Lord, let your Spirit meet us here

to mend the body, mind and soul,

to disentangle peace from pain,

and make your broken people whole.

Praying to the Virgin Mary