Holy Creator,

You made the earth, the sea, the sky, and you made your people. Thank you for pouring out your love on us. We know that you are present with us in every situation. Thank you for holding every prayer with care and love. 

Merciful God, I am scared and I am grieving. 
I don’t know when this will end, what will be lost, or who will be taken. 

Give me courage to face the days ahead. 
Give me rest from the relentless fear that grips my heart.
Breath your comfort into communities.

Offer your peace to those who mourn.

Fill the doctors, nurses, and other health care workers with strength, focus, and perseverance. Guide their hands as they work with each patient. Open them to experience your strength as they use the healing gifts you have given to them. Cover them in body, mind, and spirit with protection as they face this holy work.

I pray for those who are sick with Covid-19 or other illnesses. May they experience your healing power. Relieve them from their pain and suffering. Guide them to the treatment and care that can best serve them. For those who don’t have adequate health care coverage or who are living in the shadows, meet them where they are. Clear a path of possibility and hope. 

We remember that even when loved ones cannot be present, you are with your children as they die. You are the calming source of love that calls them home. In you there is no more pain or suffering. In you our souls find eternal rest. 

Be with those who mourn. Wrap your love around them like a warm quilt. Invite those who grieve to lean into your peaceful embrace. Surround them with the words and comfort of those who love them. 

Justice seeking advocate, fill the government leaders with compassion for the people they serve. Grant them wisdom and discernment. Remove ego and replace it with a sense of courage and duty that puts people first. Move them to cooperate and work together to best respond to the needs of your children, remembering that those in the margins are the most vulnerable. 

Even as this illness crosses every boundary, the stark inequalities are being brought out of the shadows in this crisis. Show us a way forward that steps into the gaps and that builds new systems reflecting the love that you have for everyone. 

As we surrender to you, move us to live in new ways. 

Compel us to care for one another.

Shake us up to live fully as the people you created us to be.

Show us the vision of Beloved Community that we can become.

Replace our fear with your love.

Replace our anger with your love.

Replace our grief with your love.

Replace our sense of loss with your love.

In every interaction, may your love fill us and overfill us to be a powerful force that changes the course of this pandemic. 

God, in you I place my hope.

In you I place my trust. 

In you I place my life. 

In the name of Jesus, I pray.   Amen