O God, who is a father to the fatherless, a mother to the motherless, and a friend to the friendless, we come seeking fellowship with your power and peaceful presence.
In a culture filled with divisiveness, disconnectedness, and domination, we pause for a moment of centered-cosmic Christian connection that will bring wholeness and healing to ourselves and our world.
We take time right now to worship you, to adore you, to magnify you, and to praise your holy name. In the words of the psalmist, “we lift our eyes to the hills, from whence cometh our help, our help cometh from the Lord.”
O God, liberate us from the domination of individual and institutional violence. Liberate us for the ministry of deliverance to the captives within and without.
Liberate us from a self-centered spiritual materialism and liberate us to serve the present age. Liberate us from building our kingdoms and liberate us for the Kingdom of God.
Now God, we thank you for your liberating love which redeems us, restores us, and revives and resurrects us. We thank you for the gift of love you gave us in Jesus Christ. We thank you that it is because of your divine liberating love that we are able to serve, to stand and have this moment of prayer strengthened for the journey of this day. Amen.
Frank Madison Reid III, minister, African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore
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You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
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