Help us, Lord!
Crucified and resurrected Lord, send your Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to go with me. I have no words to describe how I feel. I am in shock and need your gentle guidance as I face the news. I need encouragement that your good news will find it's way into my life, in the midst of this shocking tragedy. With you all things are possible. Help us get through this. Help us grieve. Help us Lord, we have nowhere else to turn. Your comfort, dear God, will be more important than ever as we deal with this new tragedy, and an unceasing loneliness and sense of grief. Amen.
Life Isn't Fair
Gracious God, today I pause to recall the rich experiences I have shared with loved ones in my life and to give You thanks for their presence in my life. These memories bring happiness and joy. But when I think about all the lives that have been so senselessly lost today, my heart fills with a deep, deep sadness. I grieve because the making of memories has been cut off too early for so many. And it's just not fair Lord. It's not fair for them or their families. I know life isn't fair but Lord, right now those who have been left behind are feeling abandoned and lonely. They are having difficulty accepting the finality of the separation. And frankly, so am I, a little.
Help me, Lord, to understand. And if understanding isn't possible, then surround me with your love. Let me sit enfolded in your arms as I tell you how I feel.
I seek and find rest for my soul but mostly I seek rest and comfort and guidance for the souls of the loved ones of these victims. Hold them close, Lord. Help them in their struggles. When they grow weary of the difficulties of this tragic event in their life and feel their burdens are too heavy for them to go on, help them to turn to Jesus, who will give them the rest and assurance they need. Although I don't know who or how many, I lift them to your care. Protect them and hold them closer than you are holding me. In the name of my Savior, Amen.
Why, Lord?
Our Father, I am feeling the need to know why. Fill me with your assurance and comfort so that I can go on with my life, so I can minister to my family and friends in the midst of this tragedy that has stricken our Nation. AMEN.
For Understanding in a Disaster
My God, what could make another human being harm others? As we work diligently to help all of these traumatized people, give us direction and endurance. As we treat the injured, allow us to be a source of comfort in this disaster to our patients and their families. AMEN.
Prayer for Consolation and Support
O Thou most sweet and loving Lord, Thou knowest mine infirmities, and the necessities which I endure; in how great evils and sins I am involved; how often I am weighed down, tempted, and disturbed by them. I entreat of Thee consolation and support, I speak to Thee who knowest all things, to whom all my inward thoughts are open, and who alone canst perfectly comfort and help me. Thou knowest what things I stand in most need of. Behold, I stand before Thee poor and naked, calling for grace, and imploring mercy. Refresh Thy hungry supplicant, kindle my coldness with the fire of Thy love, enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Thy presence. Suffer me not to go away from Thee hungry and dry, but deal mercifully with me, as often times Thou has dealt wonderfully with Thy saints. AMEN.
Thomas à Kempis
The Sufficiency of God
God, of your goodness give me yourself; for you are sufficient for me. I cannot properly ask anything less, to be worthy of you. If I were to ask less I should always be in want. In you alone do I have all. AMEN.
Julian of Norwich, Fifteenth Century
Prayer of Intercession and Commemoration
Majestic God, may your presence today lead your people to grow from strength to strength, from truth to truth, from loving to loving. Without your Spirit we are lifeless and barren, so fill us Lord.
Bless all who are investing themselves in your work through the rescue missions and leadership of our country. Strengthen and guide them. May your strength be evident in their work.
Sovereign above all earthly leaders, hear our prayers for our country and all our elected officials that we may be led in ways of truth and justice.
Hear our prayers for all who have escaped this disaster. And for those that are still alive, yet entangled within the rubble of the buildings, deliver them by your powerful hand. God of hope, fill them with all hope, joy and peace by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hear our prayers for those who are passing through this time of anxiety and restlessness, not knowing what to do. Grant them peace of mind as they put their trust in your daily care and keeping.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. In life and in death may we not be divided. We rejoice that you have received into heaven the faithful who this day have lost their lives so tragically. Have mercy upon them and upon those of us who remain, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the source of our life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
O the depth of your riches and wisdom and knowledge, O God! How unsearchable are your judgments and how inscrutable your ways! To you, Fatherly, Brotherly, Motherly God we give all honor and thanksgiving, time without end. Amen
For the Loss of Loved Ones
My Lord, the Good Shepherd, be with these families as they experience the loss of life of their loved one. They have been robbed of life through this tragedy. Give them peace. Give them hope. Surround them with loved ones. Allow them to feel your loving arms of comfort and peace. AMEN.
Prayers of Intercession and Commemoration
O God, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.
O Christ, our hopes are groundless unless they are anchored in you.
Holy Spirit, our prayers are empty except as they are inspired by you.
Comfort, O God, those into whose circle death has come, those in whose eyes there are tears, and on whose heart there is a wound, and who hardly dare to look forward to the road they must tread alone.
Bring relief to those in illness, in weakness, and in pain, those for whom the road back to health is hard and those for whom all hope of recovery is gone.
Challenge each of us in this nation to draw closer together. May our differences be set aside as we unite in prayer in the midst of this tragedy.
Humble those too proud to admit their need for you in the midst of these times.
Bring wisdom to those who are in leadership and those so busy with rescue attempts that they have no time for praying. Give them strength and guidance and hope.
Give rest to those who are so tired and overworked that they are impatient and irritable and difficult to live with and those for whom life has become a long weariness, one gray day and one grim task after another.
Bless all for whom life is happy, full of interest, rich in friendship, radiant with love. May they give thanksgiving for their blessings.
Maintain your church everywhere in the world, cleansing, reforming, and strengthening it that you may be able to use it for your purposes.
Bless our country and the world community of nations that we may learn to live in peace with justice.
Bless our friends both near and far that we may be true to each other and to you until the days of parting end and we are in eternity with you. To Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, who made us to be a kingdom, with priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
These prayers were inspired by, adapted from or taken directly from the CD: Devotions, Meditations and Public Prayers by Abingdon Press.