If you are looking for material connected to this week’s lectionary readings, there is a call to worship and benediction that go along with the feeding of the 5000+ here.
Tomorrow is the funeral for the 6-year-old son of two of my college friends. I have been holding them in deep prayer this week, while also mindful of the continued grieving of family and friends of the victims in the Aurora, Co, shooting. There is always much pain and grief in the world. Some days it gathers more tightly around us. For these days, I offer a prayer:
God of the broken-hearted,
God of the broken heart,
Receive our sighs
too deep for words.
In your time
by your grace
heal us.
In this meantime
hold us
as we weep.
Hold us and rock us
with the rhythm
of your own
grief-struck
quaking
body.
Amen
Spacious Faith 
Amen.
Thank you for these caring words. I attended 2 funeral services yesterday (I wasn’t officiating). One was for a 17-year-old young man who had killed himself, and the other was for a 94-year-old man whomI had known for close to 40 years. Both were in Wichita, an hour away. By the time I got home, it was time to lead Bible study. The first thing I did after Bible study was check e-mail, since I hadn’t been near a computer all day. This poem was the first thing I read. It was an amazing gift that I thank God for. Thank you for listening to God and putting these words on paper (so to speak).