Tag Archives: children

A Prayer for “Mommies and Daddies”

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What would happen if the children wrote all the prayers?  Children age 3 through 5th Grade at Trinity Episcopal wrote The Prayers of the People used in worship the last few weeks. Each prayer was followed by a brief reflective silence.  One of the children led the prayers.

Let us pray for our neighbors and our neighborhood.

Let us pray for our families and friends: our mommies and daddies, our grandparents and great-grandparents.

Let us pray for the world and the universes.

Let us pray for our pets and the animals of the world: Millie, Cokie, puppies and cats.

Let us pray for those who have illnesses, our sick grandparents, heart disease, cancer, and memory loss.

Let us pray for those going through rough times, mentally and physically.

Let us pray for those who have died everywhere and those who have died that are close to us.

Let us pray for everyone.

[The Prayers of the People concluded with a prayer written by the priest who works with these little ones:]

Holy and gracious God, we are too often blinded by trivial matters. May our attention be diverted now from these things, and may we become as little children, trusting and seeking with love to cross bridges we have not crossed in the past.

Amen!

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, October 23, 2015.

Two plus four

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…… 2 + 4 =

Laughter and giggling,
Crying, hair-pulling,
Yelling, “That’s not fair!”
Snuggles and duets.

Two runny noses
Wobbly first steps
Sibling jealousy
Sibling loyalty

Car seats and strollers,
Diapers and powder,
Cribs and big-girl-beds,
Two shoes but lost socks,

Exhausted parents,
Yelling in restaurants,
Rich baby-sitters,
No baby this year.

-Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, December 11, 2013

A Prayer for the U.S. Senate Today

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Homeless children and a society that didn’t care were the subjects of this century-old prayer by Walter Rauschenbusch, father of the Social Gospel movement that Glenn Beck loves to hate.

The language is dated. The substance is not. As the Senate sets about its debate of universal background checks and other measures to improve public safety, the children of Sandy Hook and their families also come to mind as those who find themselves “homeless” in a violent, uncaring world.

O Heavenly Father, whose unveiled face the angels of little children do always behold, look with love and pity, we beseech Thee, upon the children of the streets. Where men, in their busy and careless lives, have made a highway, these children of Thine have made a home and a school, and are learning the bad lessons of our selfishness and our folly. Save them, and save us, Lord. Save them from ignorance and brutality, from the shamelessness of lust, the hardness of greed, and the besotting of drink; and save us from the greater guilt of those that offend Thy little ones, and from the hypocrisy of those that see and see not, whose sin remaineth. Amen.

Church to become home for homeless families

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Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska has decided to use its space as temporary overnight accommodation for homeless families. The press release and the Chaska Herald’s online story just made its way to AOL.com.

Click HERE for the story. The project is targeting to begin in February, 2013. To help with the project, leave a comment here.

A Verse for Children

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A series of exchanges on Via Lucis about the history of human cruelty led me to publish this children’s prayer for sanity. There are supposed to be line breaks, but they keep disappearing.

Dear God,

Please teach me how to pray.

We have more questions every day.

Our minds and fingers seem to find

and make a mess (we leave behind)

for other’s hands to fix and clean.

(Sometimes we’re even mean.)

Often we feel that we’re so small

that we don’t matter much at all.

And yet we know you made us right

and even called us “good” in spite

of all we do. So help us know,

dear God, how we should grow.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 27, 2012

Steve’s program “Keepin’ the Faith” can be heard anytime @ www.will.illinois.edu/keepinthefaith, including archive programs.

Investigation of Trayvon Martin Case

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The Churches of Christ Uniting (CICU) – an ecumenical group of churches – issued this statement calling for a full, impartial investigation into the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL.  Members churches of CICU are the Presbyterian Church (USA), the African Methodist Church, the African American Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church, the International Council of Community Churches, the Moravian Church Northern Province, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church.

Click here for the news release by the Presbyterian Church (USA): “Any of our black and brown children could be Trayvon Martin.”

“Trayvon Martin and the Hoodies,” my commentary on the matter, was posted here yesterday.

Leave your comment here. And thanks for coming by. Gordon