Lord, Jesus Christ, teach me to pray.
Prepare yourself for the reading of the scripture passage by quieting yourself and asking God to speak to you in this passage. Read the passage slowly with both the mind and the heart, at least two times.
A Reading from the Gospel according to Mark [3:31-35]
Then, his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Who are your sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers? Who is your family? Due to all of the advances of technology the world has become a much smaller place in recent years. More than ever before, we now have a sense of what life is like for people around the world whose lives are very, very different than our own. And some of those lives and situations are very hard indeed. War, famine, starvation, disease, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes. Sometimes it just feels too overwhelming. Sometimes we make a donation. Some of us have even gone to far flung locations to do mission work. But, what else can we do? I invite you to pray.
Prayer for the World
Adapted from 50 Ways to Pray by Teresa A. Blythe
Imagine that you are in the presence of God. (And you are.) Ask the Holy Spirit to pray in and through you. Let your mind and your body be at peace.
First, visualize where you live, your home. Visualize everyone that you live with. What are some of the concerns you have at home? What are some of blessings and joy that you experience there? In your imagination, surround all of the people and situations in your home with love.
Now, visualize your work. See all of the people that you come into contact with on a regular basis. What challenges or frustrations do you have at work? What are the gifts of your work? How is God present with you there? Bless all of the people that you work with and all that you might come into contact today.
Consider now your community. Visualize the people and places of the community. What are the blessings and gifts of your community? What are the needs? Ask how God would like for you to serve or impact your community. Now, just hold the entire community in your heart. Ask God’s blessing.
Your country. Imagine looking down upon our entire country just like you would look down upon a map. Imagine all the hugely varied people and communities that are contained within the United States. Open your heart to our country as a whole. What are the blessings of living in the United States? What are your prayers for the country? As you imagine all of the United States, ask God’s help and blessing.
The earth. The earth is filled with billions of people and many of them live in desperate situations. How can we begin to pray for all of these situations? You have all seen those beautiful pictures of the earth from space. Imagine that picture in your mind now. And now just open your heart to the entire earth. You don’t need to formulate any solutions or plans. Ask the Spirit to pray in and through you. Just offer your open heart to the whole earth.
End your prayer with:
We pray all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Do you think that praying like this can affect any of the problems in your home, work, community or world? Does it make any sense to pray for the whole world like this? I invite you to write for a few moments in your prayer journal. Do you have specific prayers for the world that you would like to record?
Loving God, The earth is my home. Remind me to treat the earth, and all of my brothers and sisters who live on it, with reverence and care. Amen.
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