1st Quarter - Year A- Issue of WorshipAid
December, January and February (2001-2002)

Prayers for January 6, 2002

Epiphany

Prayer of Invocation

Pastor: Shine forth, O God,

People: Get all the way into the corners, brighten the shadows, challenge the darkness.

Pastor: Shine deep, O God,

People: Into the crevices of our heart, the places we long thought dead.

Pastor: Shine forth, O God, send us from here less afraid of the world, more capable of carrying our light—and your light to it.

All: Amen.

Prayer of Confession

For our failure to see the light, for the permission we give the dark, for all we could do and be which we do not and are not, forgive us. Forgive our blindness to evil and our pretense that we just need to understand and evil will go away. O God, draw us near again and again to Your dawn. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

For the New Year and its new ways, for all the surprises it will bring, we give you thanks. For the serendipity of last year, all that happened which we did not expect, even the horrible things, we give you thanks. We are learning from what hurts; may we continue so to do. Bless those who lead, those who teach, those who sweep, those who drive, and those who pilot. Help us see God in our own work and in each other. And as the year becomes new, let us become new as well. As the new year starts help us to commit ourselves to good in hopes of conquering evil, let us commit ourselves to charity in hopes of conquering cruelty. In Jesus' light-filled name, Amen.

Offertory

What we give is what we have received. Bless it on its way to you and let it do some good for someone you love. Amen.