Loving Father,
Your Son said, “Blessed are you poor,
but woe to you rich.”
Be close to all in our city
who experience material poverty.
Give them friends, give them work,
give them hope, give them stability of life.
Free them from the fear of crime,
of impossible rents, of bad living conditions,
of lack of transportation, of chronic illness.
Give us eyes to see the wealth
in those we call poor,
and the poverty in those we call rich.
Speak Your words of grace and challenge
to all who are materially rich,
that they may discover more fully
how their wealth may honor and glorify You.
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Merciful Father,
Your Son said, “Blessed are you hungry,
but woe to you who are full.”
Open our hearts to any whose lives
are shrouded in hunger.
Heal and help all those
for whom food becomes
the focus of or release from
their deepest anxieties,
such that eating becomes an escape or torment.
Strengthen all who work in farming
and food service industries,
and those who seek to cleanse
the relationship of humankind to the earth,
the seas and the skies, and all living things.
Make all our eating a Eucharistic thanksgiving
and a banquet of Your hope.
Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Compassionate Father,
Your Son said, “Blessed are you who weep,
but woe to you who laugh.”
Spread Your arms of mercy around all who grieve.
We pray especially for the victims of the shooting
in Thousand Oaks, California.
Shelter the families burying sons and daughters,
brothers and sisters.
And for those affected by the fires in California,
restore to them all that is lost.
We weep also with our veterans,
for those who have died in war,
and for those who have been irrevocably changed
by injury, by pain, by PTSD.
We thank You for their lives
and join them and You in a desire for peace.
Patient Father,
Your son said, “Blessed are you who are hated,
but woe when all speak well of you.”
We pray for those we hate.
In a moment of silence, we name before You
the ones we feel deep down to be our enemy.
Searching for Your grace,
we pray for those who hate us.
To You they are a dream come true.
Help us see them as beloved sons and daughters.
All this we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.