​

God of justice and mercy,

you call us to loose the bonds of injustice

and let the oppressed go free.

We do not come to you now with showy sacrifice

but with hearts ready to touch your truth.

​

We have learned that the fast you desire

is not absence but presence,

not ritual but restoration.

​

Let our lives be salt, preserving disnity.

Let our witness be light,

breaking through the world's gloom.

Let our hands reach out to the hungry,

and our voices speak peace into violence.

​

May our faith not be stored on a shelf,

but scattered like seed in the world,

so that justice may bloom,

and your glory rise like the dawn.

​

In the aching need of your people,

in the brokenness we often ignore,

may we touch and be changed.

​

​​​​​

Taken from the URC Prayer Handbook

Dionne Gravesande