Show the Love Prayers
Green Christian is asking churches and individuals to use our Show the Love Prayers in worship on the nearest Sunday before Show the Love Day, 14 February.
Find other prayers here.
See two more simple things you can do to Show the Love this Februaryy
Show the Love Prayers
O God who is love
O God who is love
Let love empower our compassion
Let love embrace each and everyone
Let love unite humans and non-human
In restorative co-existence.
O Jesus, love come down to earth
May we honour the earth
May we honour all that dwells in the earth
May we be reconciled with the earth
Become what we are, of the earth.
O Spirit of love
Grant us a spirit of humility
Grant us a spirit of carefulness
Grant us a spirit of friendship
For the earth and all that dwells with us here.
Toni Bennett
A blessing
May our loving God,
who created the world and all that is in it,
Inspire us to delight in our beautiful home,
And to live in wonder, peace and joy.
May our living God keep our hearts turned to loving our neighbour and to respecting the creation we share.
May our merciful God help us to live this week in goodness and hope,
And fill us with God’s peace.
Amen
Ash Vale Chapel Poetry Group
So beautiful is the world You created
So beautiful is the world You created – from soil to sea, plants and trees of every sort.
How wonderful the waters teeming with living creatures, birds flying across the skies, all creatures and beasts on the land
Oh, how we have taken for granted and so greedily from the earth – destroyed habitats, hunted to extinction, desecrated environments and species.
We are sorry for our ignorance, our selfishness, our behaviour
Turn us into agents of action –
Help us to change our ways –
Encourage us to bring others with us; families, friends, politicians and world leaders to….
Learn new fairer, greener ways to live with each other
On this beautiful blue planet, till every…
Valley and mountain top, field and forest, river and sea is restored, and we find a new balance to live as You intended, for….
EVERMORE.
Amen
Sue Charlton
Compassionate God
Compassionate God, you know our hearts and share our sorrows.
We are hurt by the despoiling of the living Earth, which we love.
We are angry at the loss we contemplate. We long for words of comfort, yet find them hard to hear.
Turn our grief to active love
Turn our anger to energy for repair of the world
Turn our guilt to solidarity
and by your forgiveness make us whole with all creation
Andii Bowsher
It was very good
Loving God,
You saw everything that you had made – and it was very good.
We are awed by what we see that is still good but weep for what we have spoilt.
Give us the heart and will in our living and praying to restore all creation to the very good.
So we may show our love to you, the Lord of love. Amen
Revd. Linda Atkin
Love so Divine
Dear Love so Divine
whose love casts out fear;
there is fear that surrounds us
yet hope that shines through
—tab— in the makers of vaccines
—tab— in the doctors and nurses
—tab— —tab— whose love exceeds fear
May we too show love that exceeds every fear
and remember a world which awaits human care
and whose illness is as real as those of its people.
May we show it love which exceeds every fear,
in the strength of a Saviour whose victory brings hope
in the presence of Spirit who inspires and creates. Amen.
Chich Hewitt
For our world of beauty and plenty
Creator God
For our world of beauty and plenty, we praise you-
For the earth, the seas, the plants, the animals and all the wonders of the universe.
We stand before you in awe and wonder in all that you have created.
Thank you for your generosity, a world for all to share.
Create in us a desire to come together as One World for Now is the Time to Act.
Redeemer God
Have mercy on us for our over consumption of the world’s resources,
For our lack of responsibility in devastating the habitats of your reatures,
For our thoughtlessness in filling the world with our rubbish,
For the pursuit of economic growth which leaves our brothers and sisters in poverty.
Forgive us our selfishness, that has led to this climate crisis, and bring us together as One World for Now is the Time to Act.
Sustainer God
Be generous in your gifts of wisdom, understanding and courage to help us see:
the interconnectedness of climate, nature and our lifestyles,
our responsibility to secure a future for our children, and the urgency to act now.
Inspire us to change personally, in our local communities, as nations and at a global level for we are One World, climate changes everything, and Now is the Time to Act.
Maureen Thompson
Show the Love, God
Show the Love
God, whose heart is the centre of the Universe
whose being is interfused with the world,
You look on all people with love
Your name is Agape
You look on the child with the empty bowl
and ask us why we do not share
You look at the lonely old man
and ask why we are unfriendly,
You see the plastic in the ocean
and ask why we take so much.
God, whose heart is the centre of the Universe
whose being is interfused with the world
Inspire us to look on all people with love
and to flourish immersed in Agape
Forgive us when we take too much
because we can pay for it
but do not count the true cost.
Forgive us when we overlook the forgotten
because we don’t know them
but do not count their true worth.
Forgive us, so that we can begin anew
to look on all people with love
and flourish, immersed with Agape
Amen
Penny McCulloch
You came among us
Dear Jesus, you came among us, generations ago, to show God’s love for people in all their brokenness, and so to lead them back to a right relationship with God.
As we seek to serve and follow you, we find not only broken people, but a broken world, despoiled at first in ignorance, but now in greed and wilful, headstrong, selfishness.
We come to beg your pardon for our parts in this tragedy, for rejecting your loving care in the ‘perfect planet’ you gave us, and to claim the forgiveness you offer for our parts of the shameful actions that have led us to this point.
But we are aware that accepting forgiveness marks a need to change our ways, to be more fully your people, less greedy, less selfish, more loving.
We pray that during this year we may work and pray to change this world and humanity’s response to our circumstances, to accept responsibility for the gift of this planet as our home.
May we steward it effectively, so we no longer pollute it with our waste, destruct it with our insatiable appetites for more, kill it with our poisons, but nurture it for its habitats and care for it for its plants and animals.
May we tend it for its variety, its generosity, its sheer joy as your creation, and may we teach our children and grandchildren how precious is every life you are constantly creating.
Help us to ‘Show the Love’, your love for all the people of the world and for the generations to come, in Jesus name we pray.
Amen
John Logan
Prayer for the world: Stop!
Dear Lord, I wake this morning to the glorious sight of the sun, bathing the countryside in golden light and warming not only the land but the soul. Thank you for your glorious creation, the land, sea and air; for the creatures that crawl, hop, walk, swim and fly. For the colours in the landscape, for the sun and for the rain. You have provided us on this Earth with our every need, where all life is linked in an interdependent and intricately balanced web. But the balance has gone. The humans you gave breath to have replaced ‘need’ with ‘greed’ and plundered the Earth, taking for ourselves what should be shared. Lord stop us in our tracks. Stop and take time to appreciate this gift of life and marvel at your creation. Stop and contemplate the damage we do. Stop and return to the Earth the clean water and air we have spoilt, the habitats we have taken from your creatures for our own comfort and profit. Help us restore the Earth for the good of all, the glory of its rebirth reflecting the resurrection of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Restore us O Lord and bring us nearer to you.
Amen
Sekeeta Crowley
Send your anointing
Lord God Creator
Send your anointing that we may resist the deep sleep of hopelessness
and stay awake to hear your love filled commands to us
That we may grow into what you have made us -your consciousness,
and so proclaim the infinite goodness of your loving creation.
Lord God
Help us to weep with you when we experience your sorrow
Help is to act on your behalf when called to resist the deep shadows
of rebellion against you and your Way.
Anoint us by your Holy Spirit
So that, with Her, we will live, sing and shout your praise and glory
Chris Walton
We look around and the world is still beautiful
O Lord our creator God we look around and the world is still beautiful. Spring is coming with its green shoots and fat bracts.
You are so good to us even though we truly don’t deserve it.
Man that you have made is destroying this beautiful gift with greed, wickedness and apathy.
Forgive us Lord and show us the way to stop the rape of this planet.
Help us to be true servants and to do what you so clearly told us to do in Genesis 2:15 and take care of the earth. As individuals but as your church as well. Let us work together to protect this small and vulnerable blue stone hanging in space and so fulfil the will of God. Amen
Rita Heyes
Help us heal
Dear Jesus,
Show Your Face
Hail Mary,
full of grace,
Help us heal, Holy Lord
Paul Wickham
Love, human and Divine
Love human and Divine
Love is listening seeing reasoning growing suffering together both human and divine
Michael Weekes
Show the Love Collect
Lord we give you thanks for our preservation during the year that is past and for the awareness that has come to us that we are but one part of your good creation.
We confess that we stand in need of your word of judgement having followed too much the devices and desires of own hearts. We have neglected the wisdom that you vouchsafed to our mothers and fathers. We offended against the good order of your world which you set in place for the sake of our health and holiness.
And now loving and gracious Lord have mercy upon us and send your Holy Spirit to rest upon us that we might have a better judgement in all things. Grant to each one of us your gifts of kindness and discernment that we may by our words and deeds bear witness to the harmony of creation, tread lightly upon the earth and encourage each other to live wisely and well amidst the new creation that is your gift to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Peter Grimwood
A confession
We have failed in our stewardship of your planet,
Using its resources as mere commodity,
You gave us the garden to work and take care of,
Instead we used it to increase our prosperity.
In our pursuit of profit and individualism,
We have took our place on the plane of mass consumerism,
Surrendering rights to the global conglomerates,
We’ve turned a blind eye to those that are suffering.
The global south suffers greatly with child and slave labour,
While many in the north think their riches are God’s favour,
Few stop to consider their wealth came from imperialism,
And injustices have arisen as a result of white supremacism.
Death and destruction, floods and forest fire,
The result of over consumption and selfish desire,
God in his mercy pleads repent and choose life,
By loving our neighbours and turning from sins that are rife.
As Christians we’ve been anointed to speak truth to power,
Defend the rights of poor, oppressed and in need,
Alone we can’t do this, but to the spirit we heed,
Knowing death on earth isn’t final and our tree is yet to flower.
Maria Harvey Ascroft
No more hot air, Lord
Loving God,
We thank you for this world which you have created,
For its abundant riches, resources and complex ecologies
Both those which are useful to us, providing food, clean water, clean air and so much more;
And those which are beautiful and inspiring, and which help us connect with You.
We have not cared for them well.
You have given, and keep giving, so much to us;
Your love and grace, and nature’s abundance, but also our own free will and the means to use it.
We have not used it well.
And with that free will comes consequences; consequences which affect others as well as ourselves.
Consequences which often fall hardest on the poorest,
And hurt not only those who live now, but those who are not yet born and cannot speak out for themselves.
Loving God,
Forgive us, please, for our folly.
Help us to use this time of turmoil, and the pauses which pandemics and more have brought to our busy-ness….
To stop. To stop, and to reflect on our way of life.
To consider what we are losing, when we behave so acquisitively;
What we are destroying when we make things, and build things, and buy things, for the sake of profits or greed alone.
To ask ourselves what You would want.
Help us to reflect on what we truly need;
—tab— on what is “enough”;
—tab— and on how we have squandered the world’s natural riches,
—tab— and wasted the resources which our children and grandchildren will so desperately need.
Give us courage to speak for the environment, for the unborn, for the vulnerable
Give us grace to change our lives so as to live within our reasonable means
Give us strength to act, selflessly and bravely, and soon.
Loving God,
We have not loved Your planet, and its inhabitants, well.
We have praised Your creation, but if we do not care for it, our praise is just “hot air”.
Give us wisdom.
Inspire our leaders.
Blow away our hot air,
And fill our hearts with the cooling, invigorating breath of Your Spirit,
So that we may be moved to show our love for You, by truly loving all You have created.
Amen.
Cat Turner
Breathe in us
God of mercy and love. Creator of all living things we praise your name.
Everything you have made is connected and beautiful. …
You embraced the cross for us – bound and entwined you became one,
Your love for us was greater than all our sins and selfish ways.
Breathe in us a new strength of purpose,
To rebuild in faith and hope, to go forward together – to a kinder more loving life for all.
Let us live in the way of truth and love – to your praise and glory.
Amen
Ingrid Riches
Free us
Dear motherly fatherly God, our creator and sustainer,
your Word made flesh urges us to consider the wild lilies
—tab— and to consider the wild birds,
—tab— all in their freedom from busy clutter:
May your Spirit prompt our shame at our grabbing and getting,
—tab— and free us from our disastrous greed for stuff,
For the sake of the wise divine love into which you draw us.
Amen.
Gerald Downing
Creator God
Creator God
We join with all creation to praise you and thank you for all that you have made. We praise you for your beauty which is woven into the very fabric of this world. We thank you for your breath of life which creates and sustains all life. We worship you for your love which holds us all together.
Creator God
We ask you forgiveness for the times we have got it wrong with your creation. We are sorry that we have not looked after it with the same care as you created it and we are sorry that we have made ourselves more important than your creation so that we have exploited and destroyed for our own means.
We ask you to forgive us for the times when we have been lazy in our use of energy; for the times we have consumed beyond our needs; for the times when we knew what the right things to do was, but for the sake of convenience, we treated your world badly.
We are sorry for the times when we have misused your creation by not understanding all the implications of our actions: for fast fashion, for over-eating meat, for driving our cars and taking flights.
Creator God
We ask that you would inspire us by your Holy Spirit on how we can move forward. We ask for your help with our individual lives and ask that you would enable us to take one step more towards living well on your planet. We ask that you would give us your eyes to see your world and the problems within it, and your words to share with others about what they can do to help.
Lord we ask for your intervention in world politics to bring action on the big issues: we lift up to you the Paris Agreement and pray that all countries would action all they have agreed to. We pray for our government and our local councils that they would recognise actions they can do which are sustainable and positive.
But above all, we ask that you would turn our hearts to you and reclaim the calling you placed on us at the very beginning – to care for your world with your sustaining power.
Ann Scott
Lord of all redemption and restoration
Creator of all,
Whose breath formed all life on the earth,
We praise you for the majesty and beauty of all you have made.
We thank you for revealing yourself through your creation; from the grandeur of the skies to the exquisite detail of the tiniest petal.
Father of all,
We know it grieves your heart to see the patterns of destruction at work in so much of the natural world, where we have deliberately, knowingly or unwittingly met our needs and wants without regard for the needs of other species to survive. And particularly where we have pursued lifestyles that have changed the climate on which others depends for their very lives. We have done so using the great gifts you have given us – of exploration, science, invention and technology. And have become reliant on over-exploitation to retain our jobs and livelihoods.
Help us see the world through the eyes of your heart. Help us use those same gifts to find new ways to pursue livelihoods for all within the abundance of the natural resources you have given us. Let us put foremost the needs of the poor and the oppressed, in line with your commands, and as we strive for a better world, let us treat each other with compassion, not contempt, seeking to understand different perspectives.
Lord of all redemption and restoration, you have put within our hearts and within your world an enormous capacity for regeneration. As we take joy in your creation, help us celebrate every circumstance where barrenness has been turned to flourishing and destruction to renewal. Show us where we can participate in the quest for your Kingdom on earth, that we may share in your promise that you will make all things new.
Lord, we commit anew into your hands all of our lives, and all of creation.
Amen
Catherine Masterman
A postscript reflection:
Silence at the computer engages our minds. We find silence in this time of waiting, seeing snow settle, birds fly distantly through the unsullied air. God gives us the grace to just about manage!
Faith Kerick