Lords Prayer

Our Father who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name;

Thy kingdom come;

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses (or debts)

As we forgive those who trespass against us;

(or: As we have forgiven our debtors)

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

(For thine is the kingdom

And the power

And the glory,

Forever.)

Amen,

-Roman Catholic version with

Protestant version in italics

Hopeful Prayer

Let us join our hearts and minds together in the spirit of prayer:
O Holy One, that unites all who are estranged
and challenges all who preach division and exclusion,

We see that unity so often in the eyes of a child, who sees neither race or creed in any eyes that look back, but only whether those are smiling are crying.

Suffer the little children to come to me, Jesus once said, for such is the Kingdom of God.

Yet every one of us had the eyes of a child at one time, had that vision, had that open acceptance.

Before we put on the armor of our educations, and our social class,
before we went to school and to war,
before we went to church or mosque or synagogue, or temple,

We were somebody’s child and we were loved.

So Holy One, help us to hold in our hearts ands our hands all those mother’s sons and daughters who are in harm’s way this day–

those who fight the wars of today and hope to lay eyes on those they love once more–

those who came home from the wars of yesterday and could not tell us what their eyes saw

those whose eyes were closed forever and whose family’s eyes were filled with tears this Veteran’s Day.

On all sides, in both trenches, despite the evil that is done, despite the high ideals that are proclaimed, our faith is that all these children deserve to be called the Children of God.

We pause in silent affirmation of that faith:

Amen.

by Rev. Kathleen Rolenz