Oh Great Mystery, So many find their way to Wisdom through heeding the call of their dreams.  Let us hear your voice with our sleeping ears, now and in this coming year, that we, like the Magi and Joseph might take the best steps to protect and grow the Christ Child in every heart.

We pray for the upliftment and solace of all your children.

We are so thankful for our greater island community—a safe and beautiful shelter in a world that seems to be growing ever more turbulent and precarious.  We are particularly thankful for those people in our Emmanuel fellowship—people whom we can trust, who are loyal, and who share with us a view toward actively enhancing the common good. We could not be this community without the guidance of our priests, Berto and Hugh, whose wisdom and kindness awakens sleeping cords of compassion in our hearts.  We pray for them, and for our Bishop Phillip, and our Presiding Bishop Sean, and for spiritual leaders everywhere who share with us the mission of stewardship for all your creation: animal, vegetable, and mineral.

We pray for the upliftment and solace of all your children.

We pray and offer special thanks to all who prepared the beautiful holiday celebrations, from liturgies and music, to decorations and food.  And we thank the children whose active participation in the 5:00 service invigorated our vision for the future. These loving gifts of service and celebration filled every nook and cranny of our hearts.

We pray for the upliftment and solace of all your children.

Let us pray for the homeless, the derelicts, the addicts, those displaced because of war and weather, and anyone needing food and comfort, remembering that in the heavenly kingdom even the smallest and  least significant souls find dwelling places and food and acceptance.  

We pray for the upliftment and solace of all your children.

Let us pray for soldiers, makers of weapons, leaders of countries seeking power and wealth, for all those seeking vengeance, and fanatics and fundamentalists of every stripe. May they come to see that the same light illumines all paths and includes all travelers on these paths.

We pray for the upliftment and solace of all your children.

And we pray for those on our Parish Prayer List…  and those special concerns known only to us [a time to remember them silently or aloud], and those for whom no one prays.

We pray for the upliftment and solace of all your children.

Oh Great Mystery:  many are those we miss :  those far away from home, and those who have gone on before us. In this deep and sacred time may they bless us in our dreams, and we bless them in our memories, and may all find strength in knowing everyone shares a place in your heart. Happy are those who place their trust in you. Amen