Holy spirit embracing all in ever-constant affection,
We gather together this Sunday a jumble of highs and lows, anxieties and anticipations, troubles too great to bear alone, joys too great to bear alone.
Our hearts turn with random enthusiasms, and ceaseless worries. Our minds scamper with fleeting images, or cling too tightly to weighty obsessions. Some spirits leap up this morning at this day of new beginnings. Some spirits sink down this morning at this day of final endings.
We come thankful for this congregation with room to contain all of our lives: a person filled with doubt and fear, sits beside a person filled with optimism and strength. The hungry man next to the well-fed woman. The healthy beside the sick. The troubled beside the peaceful. The pressed down, beside the lifted up.
Forgive us the times when we let our differences force us apart instead of drawing us closer. Awaken in us a sense of curiosity about lives different from our own. Help us to see your divine face in every face and in all our faces together.
Today we set our solitary lives into the context of this community larger than ourselves and into this faith tradition older than ourselves. Within the great symphony of existence we add our melody.
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