Spirit of the Living God, each year we gather with hopes that our meditations may be pleasing to you.
Each year we gather as your children and as your church, feeling the unquenchable fire of your Spirit,ready to be resurrected into new life and a new creation.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us. Fall afresh on us and breathe on us as you did on those who gathered in the upper room on that great day of Pentecost. Fall afresh on us and breathe on us, filling us with your Holy Spirit—the same Spirit as promised to us by the resurrected Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.
Give us the ability to speak through your Spirit the language of you, loving and merciful God, so that others may see you, know your grace, and feel the love of Jesus. With your Spirit, give each of us the language to speak peace where there is no peace; to speak love where there is no love; to speak justice where there is no justice; to speak kindness where there is no kindness.
Give us strength through your Spirit to work for safe communities and neighborhoods in our towns and cities. Give us strength through your Spirit to vote for opportunities and access for all. Give us strength to cry out against evil, against unfairness, against the maltreatment of the least regarded, least respected, and least protected in our communities. Give us strength to love those who hate us. Give us strength to comfort those who disappoint us. Give us strength to speak the language of your Spirit: peace, love, justice, and kindness.
We pray this prayer in the name of our resurrected Savior.
Amen.
The Rev. Bridgett A. Green, doctoral candidate in New Testament at Vanderbilt University
This prayer appears in Justice and Peace Shall Kiss, a prayer book created by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.