Resources - Prayers

Almighty God,
We give thanks to you for the life and faith
of your beloved servant, Mary,
who has come to represent a concept of motherhood
that both embodies and transcends all time,
all languages and all religions;
We give thanks that you chose her
to be the mother of your son
in order that we should know and learn
to love Jesus as a human being.

As the Mooi River flows,
So too flows our grief,
So too flows our anger, our disappointment.
We willed the strength of human nature to triumph over the natural forces.
We prayed for a miracle, for you, O God, to intervene.
But it was not to be.
And so our grief will flow,
Like tributaries joining the great river of human sorrow,
A river so deep and turbulent on this African continent.
The tears of fathers & mothers, sisters & brothers, wives & children
Spilling forth on the banks of tragedy,

Almighty God,

We praise you for the gift of children.

We thank you for the blessing of our children
and our children’s children.

Thank you for their laughter and their tears:
the laughter that makes us laugh
and the tears that touch our deepest concern.

We are grateful that a child who finds delight 
in an expensive toy can find the same joy in a crawling snail.
We are grateful that a child’s abundant energy
can find sublime rest in sleep.

Almighty God,