Valentine’s Day: A Prayer for Every Day of the Year

In virtual worship today, Pastor Alex McCauslin of Journey of Faith Christian Church, shared this prayer with her congregation. I love it for the varied forms of love it honors as expressions of God’s presence with us, understanding that idealistic and romantic expressions of this gift are only small dimensions of its magnitude to transform us on the deepest level.

God of Love,

You call us beloved.

And you have given us one another, 

That we might know the depth of your love enfleshed.  

On this Hallmark Holiday- we are grateful for love, in its many forms. 

We are grateful for the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, coaches, teachers, mentors—for those who saw us in the vulnerability and possibility of childhood and offered us love and care. 

We are grateful for intimate friendships, family created by blood or by choice, both those in which the love burned bright for a season and faded, and those in which the embers have remained warm over a lifetime. 

We are grateful for romantic love, too, in its sweet blessing and beauty: for the belly butterflies of fresh and refreshed love; for the warmth of well-tested, well-worn, well-known love; for the tug of memory connecting us to love in eternity. 

We are grateful for the love with unspeakable power that we know only through our relationships with the young ones in our lives, love for our children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, students and mentees. 

We recognize this morning that love often calls us to sacrifice, to admit fault, to change. We struggle with this sometimes, O Lord. Meet us in that struggle, offering mercy and encouragement in our ongoing transformation. 

This morning, in a world still fraught with disease, we ask your blessing, Beloved, on all those separated from their dearest loves in this season. May your eternal bonds of connection bind across distance and be seen through phone screens and behind masks. 

We pray, too, for your love to unfold, guided by justice, in the many circumstances where hate, greed, and selfishness flourish—particularly in the systems of economic inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ableism that prevent so many from living dignified lives. 

Your love, we believe, has the power to heal. May that healing love be known in the bodies and minds of the many on our prayer list this week, those sick in the hospital and recovering from illness, those who are near death and those who have recently lost someone dear. 

Love can bring us courage, 

In the face of uncertainty, 

In the face of incredible loss. 

Fill us with that love, that we might bear it back down your holy mountain and into the world. Amen.

Blessings of the heart to you on this Transfiguration Sunday, LeAnn