Near To The Brokenhearted: A Prayer After the Tree of Life Shooting

Psalm 34:15-18

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

  and God’s ears are open to their cry.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,

  and rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,

  and saves the crushed in spirit.

 

Hear our prayers, Lord.

Hear the prayers of friends and family of the shooting victims,

grieving for loved ones lost.

Hear the prayers of Jewish communities,

reeling in fear and anguish.

Hear the prayers of people who feel isolated, afraid, angry, or guilty.

Hold the range of our prayers and emotions, O Lord,

and draw them all into your mercy.

 

You are near to the brokenhearted,

and save the crushed in spirit.

 

Hear our prayers, O Lord.

Forgive us for the ways we have been complicit in hatred;

for the times we have not spoken out against myths of supremacy

or patterns of violence;

for the ways we have watered seeds of division

for the sake of the status quo;

for the times we have set out to quench the flames of hatred,

and found ourselves just warming our hands by the blaze.

Forgive us, Lord, convict us and challenge us.

Love us into wholeness.

Carry us, and help us carry your message of costly peace.

 

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and your ears are open to their cry.

 

Hear our prayers, O Lord,

for all who are brokenhearted or crushed in spirit;

for all who are ill, grieving, or recovering;

for the people we love, the people we have forgotten to love,

and the people we cannot bring ourselves to love.

Hear our prayers, O Lord.

 

We pray specifically for our Jewish friends and family,

and for synagogues in our city.

Hold them as you have, O Lord.

Love them as you do.

Call us as you will, to sit with them in their grief,

and follow their lead in walking toward peace.

 

We pray in the name of the one who was and is near to the brokenhearted,

using the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, Our father…