After a big week like Pentecost, sometimes our liturgical ideas for the following week can be a bit….underwhelming. Here are a few tidbits to get you started from other RevGals. Feel free to use them, or adapt, or let them spark your own writing! If you use them, please give credit in written forms/video descriptions, but there’s no need for verbal attribution.
Prayer of Confession by Teri Peterson (can be responsive or read by one voice)
One: You call us into your presence, O God, yet often we turn our eyes away in fear.
All: Forgive us, and show us your glory. ~silence~
One: You call us to follow you…we confess that we often don’t want to go “there” or with “them.”
All: Forgive us, and lead us on your way. ~silence~
One: You call us to love our neighbors and our enemies…we confess we prefer to love ourselves.
All: Forgive us, and teach us to love with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. ~silence~
One: You call us to use your gifts for your purpose…we confess we usually give you what’s left.
All: Forgive us, O God. Give us hearts, minds, and hands open to receive and to give. Amen. ~silence~
Affirmation of Faith by Teri Peterson (I think this is mine, riffing on some language from the Iona Community…I pulled it out to use again and google doesn’t give me any hits suggesting I borrowed it! If it’s yours, please let me know and I’ll change the name.)
We trust in God, who has created and is creating—
from water and wind to painters and poets,
giving a home to all the families of the earth,
blessing the world through faithful people.
We trust in Jesus, Word made flesh—
who healed, touched, taught, and ate,
drawing outsiders, women, sinners, and friends into God’s new community of love.
Even in death, his arms stretched wide, encircling all.
And on the third day he rose, reconciling the whole world to God.
We trust in the Holy Spirit, breath of life—
present in every place and time, offering love and compassion,
calling forth faithfulness, generosity, and justice.
Living among us, beside us, and within us, the Triune God provides
in the everyday, and the exceptional;
the cosmic, and the ordinary.
Affirmation for Trinity Sunday by Mary Luti
We believe in God,
maker and re-maker of everything that is,
in whom there is always more,
and more to come;
and by whose wonder, work, and will,
even the dead find life.
We believe in God.
We believe in Jesus Christ,
maker and re-maker of tables and tales,
in whom the welcome is wide,
the feasting free;
and by whose weeping, words, and wounds,
even the lost are found.
We believe in Jesus Christ.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
maker and re-maker of imagination,
whose eyes see over the horizon,
beyond the end;
and by whose urgency and fire,
even the truth gets told.
We believe in the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we also believe
that everything that lives can be reborn,
all hidden things can come to light,
all broken things can be remade,
the empty larder can be filled,
and promises gone stale and hard
can taste like bread again.
And we believe the old, old Story can be told again
to thrill sad hearts like rediscovered love;
that even lost and frightened lambs like us
can be retrieved, restored to courage,
and declare the Truth
that makes the tyrants tumble
and the captives free.
Move Us Toward Blessedness –A Responsive Litany based on The Beatitudes of Matthew 5, by Cathy Mia Kolwey
ONE: Bend us to your blessedness as we pray; turn our hearts toward those that you call blessed. Purify our hearts and grant us a vision of your righteousness for this world, for we know that this is the path to the Kingdom of Heaven, and so we pray Holy One:
ALL: Move us toward blessedness, O God.
ONE: Help us to stand with those who mourn, to bear witness to the grief and sorrow, to not turn away when we find their tears catching in our own throats. For we know that those who mourn will be comforted, and so we pray Holy One:
ALL: Move us toward blessedness, O God.
ONE: Give us a heart full of mercy, a heart that turns away from violence and retaliation and finds a path towards restoration and peace. For we know that those who are merciful will be shown mercy, and so we pray Holy One:
ALL: Move us toward blessedness, O God.
ONE: Teach us how to be both peacemaker and justice seeker, because you call us to be both, and we struggle to know how believing that without peace there will be no justice and without justice, there can be no peace. We know though, that it is the peacemakers who You will call the children of God, and so we pray Holy One:
ALL: Move us toward blessedness, O God.
ONE: Help us God, to put on the mantle of persecution by standing with those who are persecuted through exploitation, oppression, war, or repression because of their race, gender, faith or nationality
ALL: Move us toward blessedness, O God.
ONE: Move us closer toward your blessedness, Holy God, so that we might know your grace in this world. Amen.
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If you have written words for worship in this strange new world that you are willing to share, please send us an email: revgalblogpals at gmail dot com. We are looking for contributions!
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