Eugene Peterson once described “the church,” a community of faith as “the least utilitarian grouping of persons on earth, and its essential nature less self-evident than any other category of persons.” We, “the church,” are a mess of an amalgamation, especially when it comes to effective participation in seeing “His kingdom come, His will done on earth as it is in heaven.” Which is all the more reason we should pray for “the church,” our faith family, and the family of our Father throughout our city, nation, and world.
Let’s join one another today in doing just that, through this prayer adapted from Ernest Campbell.
Hear us, Father, as we pray for the Holy Catholic Church, your church:
proclaiming a better gospel than is ever lived;
panicked by the boisterous winds of change that whistle through its ranks;
aping the world in its dependence on wealth and pretentious plans, invoking the skills of online marketing to sell the Via Dolorosa;
ashamed at times of its beginnings: the cup, the cross, the towel;
and yet nevertheless the community of grace, loved and kept by YOU.
Give to your church, Father, the courage that comes from knowing
that Christ means to win that for which he died;
the faith that comes with the hearing of your Word;
the commitment to service that is born and nourished in communion with you;
the quality of life that comes when the cost of apprenticeship is
declared and the spirit-strengthened rise up to answer, ‘Yes.’
Revive your church, O Father.
Revive your church through us, we pray.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.