Daily Prayer for Friday, February 5, 2021

“When the morning wakens, then may I arise pure, and fresh, and sinless in Thy holy eyes.”        
                                         —Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865

Preparation for worship
Sit in a relaxed position. Take a slow, deep breath (or 2 or 3 or as many as needed) until you feel your body, mind, and soul begin to relax and rest in the Spirit.  Take time to reflect as you move through this time of worship…

Opening Sentences                                                  1 Corinthians 1:17-18
We proclaim the message of the cross:
this is the wisdom and power of God.

Prayer                                           United Church of Canada Service Book, 1969
Grant unto us, O God, the fullness of your promises.
Where we have been weak, grant us your strength;
where we have been confused, grant us your guidance;
where we have been distraught, grant us your comfort;
where we have been dead, grant us your life.
Apart from you, O Lord, we are nothing,
in and with you we can do all things.  Amen.

Hymn of the Day                            
Let Us Break Bread Together, by Reggie Houston. Listen and pray. 

Reading of the Day                                                   1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Prayers for self and others
Please pray today for those who are being affected by Covid-19 and by its side effects in our world.  Pray for the thousands who are still being diagnosed positive in the U.S. each day, and for the thousands who are dying.  Please continue to pray for Marcy Szeliga and for Mark Sabala, both working as nurses with Covid patients, and for Brandon Jantzen and his family— Brandon is experiencing continuing health problems after having Covid.  Pray for people in low income and underserved areas- those hardest hit by the virus- that they would be able to get vaccinated.  As we hear of more friends who are directly affected, or who are working in high risk places, we will list them here. Use this time to lift your joys, concerns, and hopes to God.

Benediction
Now may the Lord of peace
give you peace at all times
and in all ways.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
be with all of you.
Alleluia!