Our Shared Prayers

January 2025

January 29

In the context of our 500-year remembering of our origins, let us pray together as our forebears prayed three centuries ago. The following prayer is taken from a prayer book in German called Die Ernsthaften Christenpflicht compiled in 1708 and still in print, used by the Old Order Amish. My father, Leonard Gross, translated this book in 1997:  Prayer Book for Earnest Christians; A spiritually rich Anabaptist resource.   

Shared by Suzanne Gross, MCA Bridge Building Facilitator 

 A Fine Prayer for Thanksgiving.

We thank you humbly and from our hearts, and declare to you our deep praise, honour, and glory, and our highest thanksgiving, O Lord God, rich in love!  

We thank you for all your great deeds of kindness and fatherly faithfulness, and for your great gifts and acts of mercy which you have always shown to us and done for us, and especially now in these last, dark times.

We further extend our deep thanksgiving to you, O holy Father of all mercies! who has created everything, heaven and earth, the sea and everything therein!  

You keep faith forever and create justice for those who often need to suffer much injustice.  But you have also redeemed all those who have held to you throughout all time, who have believed, trusted, and served you truly, and have feared you constantly.  [Amen]

Photo: The Die Ernsthaften Christenpflicht , 1796

January 22

Motherly God,
You who birthed the stars and cradle the earth, we come to You with heavy hearts for the world. We grieve for the wounds of creation, for the forests cut down, the waters poisoned, and the creatures driven from their homes.

We grieve for the injustices that leave Your children—our siblings—suffering from oppression, violence, and neglect. Guide us, Your children of peace, to walk boldly in Your light, to stand against forces that harm, and to build bridges where division reigns.

Help us to show radical hospitality, welcoming the stranger, the outcast, and the hurting, as You have so lovingly welcomed us.

Strengthen our hands to care for Your earth, our voices to speak truth to power, and our hearts to live out the call of Your peace. May we be reflections of Your love in this weary world.

Mother of all creation, renew our hope in these troubling times. Remind us that Your Spirit moves through us, and through our work, Your kingdom is near. 

We are Your children of peace. Grant us the courage to live as such, to sow love where there is hatred, justice where there is harm, and care where there is neglect.

May it be so. Amen.

Written and shared by Caleb Gingerich January 20. Caleb is a member of MC USA, specifically the Western District Conference. His day-job is with MDS USA.

January 15

God of light and new beginnings,
We are starting a new year and need your guidance.
Open our eyes to see you at work around us,
Open our ears to hear your voice,
Open our hearts to receive and share your abundant and unbounded love.
 
Written by Debbie Baergen, FMC Edmonton

January 8

An Epiphany Prayer