Invocations

Loving God,

we come this morning like children clinging to Mother's hand, seeing the world only from the knees down. To look up is to be overwhelmed; to look around is to be overwhelmed. Renew our strength this morning and challenge us to lift our heads, to open our eyes, ears and minds to your message. Move us this day, O Loving God, to the compassion that springs from you. Renew our sense of connectedness with our fellow human beings and inspire us to always share the bounties that are ours which come from you. In this we pray, Amen.

O God of justice and mercy,

you call us to share our bread with the hungry. Be now, we pray, our bread and sustenance. You call us to bring the homeless poor into our house. Be now, we ask, our shelter and refuge. You call us to loose the bonds of injustice and let the oppressed go free. Be now, we ask you, our freedom and forgiveness. Here in this hour, so sustain us and embrace us, so pardon us and liberate us that we become a light to someone else's darkness and a healing to someone else's brokenness, and that this worship and our very lives be to you a praise, this day and all days, now and forever.

O God of unyielding love,

already the sense of your presence calms our restless hearts. At the beginning of this time of worship we pray that you will open us to the movement of your Spirit and make us alive to the power of your compassion. Ease our tensions. Set us free from fear. And renew our spirits, so that our lives may bear witness to the redeeming power of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.