Great God, creator God, loving God, we come to you with the worries of our own personal lives, too. We ask you to unravel the family discord some of us encounter. We pray for loved ones who are sick. We pray for people facing the last weeks and months of life. We pray for people who are lonely. And we pray for ourselves, for each one of us, that you give us hearts of gratitude and sustain us with a powerful sense of your hand in this world. We also pray for Tom Eckles and his family who lost his mom Mary Wilkes Eckles this week.  O God may you place your loving arms around them and give them strength and hope during this difficult time.  Also, we continue to pray for the families of the victims in the terrible mass shooting last week. O God, we ask you now to hear us in these next few seconds of silence as we name in our hearts the people known to us who need a sign of your presence. Thank you for putting desire in our hearts—a desire to know you, a desire to be bonded together in your Son, a desire to be better people. Thank you for the bits of faith you have given us already, for the people who have come before us and the people who will come after us, and thank you, O God, for one another. Through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Mr. Florian Sloan