Prayer

God over all,

As we begin Hispanic Heritage month today, we recommit our eyes to seeing our diversity as the ground of our unity. We are one human family and belong to each other. Lead us every day further into that truth, that your goodness may be revealed through our engagements and partnerships across and between all our magnificent variety. Your goodness in us is truly more good for being so diverse! Amen.

Prayer

Saving Love,

Today, Christians around the world celebrate the significance of the cross upon which Jesus died. A symbol of death has been transformed to a sign of redemptive, salvific love. May we all be inspired to cultivate and practice such a love today. For the sake of others in need, for enemies we do not think deserve it, for those who cannot or will not show a grateful response. Yes for all people today, may we become signs of a love beyond earthly logic. Amen.

Prayer

God with us,

You are always and already closer to us than we are to you. When we struggle to perceive your presence around us, renew our sense of gratitude for the places we inhabit and the world you have given as our home. Convert us by the thought that you have your eyes on us, just as we are, in the places we are, as the people we are. May we thus be inspired to do what we can to improve the places we indwell and bring healing to my neighbors in need. Amen.

Prayer

Loving God,

Wherever we come from and whatever we are going through, we are each in need of a prayerful spirit that knows how to pause, breathe, and surrender to a purpose beyond ourselves. Lead us in the way of such prayer. Help us become conscientious students of our own attention, learning to avoid the frenetic chaos that tries to overwhelm, and to yield ourselves instead to the calling you have given. As partners in mission, we pray. Amen.

Prayer

Sacred Silence,

Sometimes our prayers take us out to a place past words—to a place of silent encounter with you. All of our prayers are likely aimed at such silence. Yet especially today, when we cannot articulate the grief that we feel for the horror and tragedy of an event like 9/11. Fill our silence today. Give it meaning. As we honor the memory of those lost, as we support those closest to the pain, and as a nation gathers to remember, let our silence become an encounter. Amen.

Prayer

God of Life and Light,

May we never neglect the significance of interactions that might otherwise seem so casual. Sharpen our perception of others we encounter each day. Quicken our hearts to see and to know who needs us to reach out with concern, and then urge us, right then and there, to make space and do so. As we recognize World Suicide Prevention Day, we offer ourselves to you. Use us to create hope in the hearts of the hopeless. Amen.

Prayer

Enriching God,

On this Feast of St. Ciarán, we celebrate the legacy of this gifted leader and teacher, who was one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and the first abbot of Clonmacnoise. Despite his early death from illness, Ciarán set a lasting example for others to follow in fostering communal life and a shared experience of practical spirituality. May we be inspired by those who, like Ciarán, cultivate new ways of being with and for others during times of great change and disruption. May we do the same for each other today. Amen.