A PSALM IN PRAISE OF MOTHERS

Leader: Let us now praise mothers, and all who are mothers of mothers. In the name of Shaddai, our Mother, we call blessings upon your name.

All: May mercy and peace accompany you and follow you all the way home.

Left: For all mothers who bring to birth and contribute to God's creation. For young mothers and old mothers, first-time mothers and experienced mothers, teenage mothers, third world mothers, and mothers who have lost children in utero.

Right: For adoptive mothers and spiritual mothers, and all whose love is like that of mothers, all who give birth to ideas or music, artistic works or any creation that helps them think and feel like mothers, whose creativity brings to birth in others.

All: May God's creativity accompany you and follow you all the way home.

Left: For all mothers who have lost a child and who have suffered the pain of separation.

Right: For all mothers who have been trafficked or whose childen have been trafficked.

All: May God's peace accompany you and follow you all the way home.

Leader: For all whom you wish to pray.

Left: For all mothers who reach out to other people, who nurturre and feed the world.

All: May the Spirit of God empower you and follow you all the way home.

Right: May Shaddai, our Mother, bless all mothers.

All: Thank you, Shaddai, for all our mothers. May their spirit inspire forever.

Adapted from WOMANWORD, Miriam T. Winter

A LITANY OF RESISTANCE

Violence never again!
War never again!
Terrorism never again!
In God's name,
may all religions bring upon earth
justice and peace,
forgiveness, life and love!

—Pope John Paul II, 2002

From the arrogance of power
All: Deliver us
From the poverty of violence
All: Deliver us
From the tyranny of greed
All: Deliver us
From the ugliness of racism
All: Deliver us
From the politics of hypocrisy
All: Deliver us
From the hysteria of nationalism
All: Deliver us
From the cancer of hatred
All: Deliver us . . .

—by Jim Loney

A LITANY OF PRAYER FOR THE UNINSURED AND UNDER-INSURED

Reader #1: We are the millions of men and women in our national community who—for a variety of reasons: downsizing, outsourcing, restructuring—will wake up one day this year to learn that we no longer have a job. Added to the stress of finding a new job, we'll also have to figure out how to continue to provide health care for our families. If we are fortunate to have health insurance, we will be faced with paying more at a time when we are trying to make do with less.

RESPONSE: You are or have been one of us. We know or have known others. We care for you and we pray for you, remembering that we are all brothers and sisters.

(Moment of silence)

Reader #2: We are the 4 million people in our national community who will celebrate a 19th birthday this next year. As we blow our the candles on the cake, we may be marking the loss of our health insurance. Our society will ensure that if we call the fire department, someone will respond. It will not offer us the same guarantee for our health.

Response: Same as above.

Reader #3: We are the 5 million children in our national community whose lack of health insurance sets up a barrier to good health. We are children in a nation that works to make sure we each have a basic education. We are children in a nation which ignores that we need a similar guarantee for health care.

Response: Same as above.

Reader #4: We are the 30 million workers between the ages of 18 and 64 who earn less than $9 an hour. Those of us who work full-time earn $18,800 a year. Many of us are the store clerks, mechanics, dry cleaners, and restaurant workers you meet. Our nation relies on our work to keep American humming along. We typically have no health insurance. We make too much to get health care from public health programs. We often end up in emergency rooms for care because we have no other place to go.

Response: Same as above.

Reader #5: We are the owners of small businesses, those businesses with less than 100 workers. We employ 38 million people in communities across the country. We support the local little league team and sponsor civic events. Because of the high cost, we often are unable to provide the protection of health insurance for our employees.

Response: Same as above.

Reader #6: We are the six of every 10 people in the United States who are lucky enough to have jobs that offer health insurance for our families. And yet, each year, we find that we are paying more. Deductibles and co-payments keep going up. More and more things are not covered by our insurance, which means we have to pay for them. As a result, many of us—people who own homes, who had full-time employment and insurance before getting ill—will declare bankruptcy because of our medical bills.

Response: Same as above.

Reader #7: We are the 18,000 people who will die this year beasue we do not have the security of health care that comes with having insurance. Out of pride, out of shame, out of fear—or because we simply don't have the money to do to the doctor—we will ignore signs that our health may be in jeopardy. If we do get medical attention it will be too late.

Response: Same as above.

Reader #8: We are the uncounted millions for whom preventive health care and a healthy lifestyle are a struggle. We live in the inner city where fresh fruit and vegetables are not available in our marketws. We live in rural communities with no doctors. The color of our skin or our gender disproportionately impacts the diagnosis and the treatment of a medical condition.

Response: Same as above.

(Adapted from "Readings from the Uninusred" in "Vision and Voice: Faithful Citizens and Health Care.")

A PRAYER IN THE SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

(A Prayer for Every Day)

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace:
Where there is poverty and ecological brokenness,
let me help to restore Creation's integrity.
Where there is disregard for present and future generations of life,
let me proclaim Your everlasting
covenant with every living creature.
Where there is carelessness for Your beloved Creation,
let me inspire respect.
Where there is arrogance, humility.
Where there is greed, generosity.
Where there is wastefulness, caring frugality.
Where there are false divisions, solidarity.
Where there is indifference to suffering, compassion.
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in the pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

God of all Creation, we come to you in a moment of personal and corporate confession. We participate in a system which is exploitative and violent and which separates humanity from the rest of Creation. By acts of omission and commission we cause harm to others. At times we are guilty of complicity, passivity and denial, at other times of abuses of power. We hear the cries of both our fellow humans, who are already living in the midst of extreme poverty and hunger, and the cries of all creation. We know we bear responsibility for the pain of both, and we know the impact one has on the other. We confess our complicity in the plight of all of your Creation, and beg your forgiveness and mercy, that we may do better to follow in the way of You who creates. Amen

A CLIMATE PRAYER FOR THE PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Creator God, have mercy on our wayward world, tottering on the brink of self-destruction. Have mercy on those living in poverty around the world who are least responsible for the problems of climate change, yet stand to suffer the most. Have mercy on the rulers and statesmen who bear the ultimate burden of government. Have mercy on our nation as we face our share of responsibility. We recognize that we have allowed the values of consumerism to override the permanence of your Creation, and cause us to act in ways that damage your creation and wrap your children in the cycle of poverty. Have mercy on us all, and grant us your forgiveness. Amen.

FOR IMMIGRANTS

Reader 1: Jesus said, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; come, follow me." From our migrant brothers and sisters, who come with nothing but their will to work, teach us to let go of our own securities and comforts to follow you, to live simply that others might simply live.

Response: Graciously hear us, Merciful God.

Reader 2: Jesus said, "Everyone who has left father or mother, brother or sisters, wife or children, houses or lands because of me, will receive a hundredfold and will possess eternal life." From our migrant sisters and brothers, who leave house and land, brother and sister, and even wife and children, teach us gratitude for the gift of our relationships with others.

Response: Graciously hear us, Merciful God

Reader 3: Francis of Assisi said of his followers, "They must rejoice when they live among people considered of little value and looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside." From our migrant sisters and brothers, who, though often without being seen, clean our work spaces, harvest our food, bus our eating places, build our living spaces, and keep beautiful our recreational spaces, teach us the importance of solidarity with those who have little or nothing of the goods of this world.

Response: Graciously hear us, Merciful God.