Consider these two prayers.
One is a prayer of confession.
The other is a prayer of blessing.
They speak of value, acceptance, wealth,
welcome, and hospitality.
May we use them as our situation requires.
A Prayer of Confession
Father, in your creation you have made us rich,
And yet we have made ourselves poor
In our reluctance to credit others with value;
In our failure to look beyond the material and accepted
standards of our day;
In our deafness to hear only the sounds that are pleasant
to our ears;
In our noise and busyness, failing to listen to the unuttered
cries of hurt and pain;
In our lifestyle, putting pleasure of palate before the real
cost to individuals in another part of the world.
We live as though our well-being matters most
And because of that, the rest of creation suffers.
Father, forgive us.
Help us to visualize your values,
To appreciate your resources,
But above all to credit all humankind as members of the family,
Valuable and indispensable.
- Rosemary Wass
A Prayer of Blessing
O God, make the door of this house wide enough
to receive all who need human love and fellowship,
and a heavenly Father’s care;
and narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and hate.
Make its threshold smooth enough
to be no stumbling block to children or to straying feet,
but rugged enough to turn back the tempter’s power;
make it a gate to thine eternal kingdom.
- Thomas Ken, written at the door of a Christian hospital
Grace and peace,
Ron
