Creator God, we know that for everything there is a season, and we thank you for the gifts of the season of summer.
We pray for your blessing on family reunions and the gathering of friends in the summer. Bless homes and strengthen love through the fellowship of believers. Where this summer contains times of renewal and rest, a break in hectic scheduling, O God of Sabbath, we give you thanks. Protect those who travel, and keep safe loved ones and friends who may be apart from us in this season. Especially we ask your blessing on the youth and mission trips this summer, and the leaders of those programs.
Compassionate God, we lift up to you those who suffer in the heat of this season. We pray for those who labor outdoors, and those whose work is made more burdensome by the scorching sun. Please help them with the burden. We pray for the poor, the thirsty, the ill, the grieving, those for whom this season holds no respite. Divine Healer, use us in some way this summer as a means of your mercy.
Lord of Nature, we lift up our prayers for those who suffer now from disaster, or who may be in the path of storms this hurricane season. Reveal the power of your love to help and to heal in the midst of catastrophe.
To everything there is a season Lord, and a time for every matter under heaven. We lift up the private prayers we are carrying into the season ahead, names and situations that need your help, and we add our own names as well. We pray in the name of the one who retreated to the mountains to pray, and who taught by the sea, Jesus Christ. Amen
-Rev. John T DeBevoise