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262 appendix A Litany for Healing God of grace, you nurture us with a love deeper than any we know, and your will for us is always healing and salvation. We praise you and thank you, O God. God of love, you enter into our lives, our pain, and our brokenness, and you stretch out your healing hands to us wherever we are. We praise you and thank you, O God. God of strength, you fill us with your presence and send us forth with love and healing to all whom we meet. We praise you and thank you, O God. God of love, we ask you to hear the prayers of your people. Hear us, O God of life. We pray for the world, that your creation may be understood and valued. Hear us, O God of life. Touch with your healing power the minds and hearts of all who suffer from sickness, injury, or disability, and make them whole again. Hear us, O God of life. Touch with your healing powers the minds and hearts of all who live in confusion or doubt, and fill them with your light. Hear us, O God of life. Touch with your healing power the minds and hearts of all who are burdened by anguish, despair, or isolation, and set them free in love. Hear us, O God of life. Break the bonds of those who are imprisoned by fear, compulsion, secrecy, and silence. Come with your healing power, O God. Fill with peace those who grieve over separation and loss. Come with your healing power, O God. Restore to wholeness all those who have been broken in life or in spirit by violence within their families; restore to wholeness all those who have been broken in life or in spirit by violence within our Family of Nations; restore to them the power of your love; and give to them the strength of your presence. appendix 263 Come, O God, and restore us to wholeness and love. Let us now name before God and this community gathered those, including ourselves, for whom we seek healing. (The congregation may call out names). We lift up before you this day all those who have died of violence. (The congregation may call out names of those who have died.) That they may have rest In that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal. O God, in you all is turned to light, and brokenness is healed. Look with compassion on us and on those for whom we pray, that we may be re-created in wholeness, in love, and in compassion for one another. AMEN. Developed by the Rev. Caroline Sproul Fairless, as part of “What Does Love Require? A Family Violence Manual for the Church Community,” MDiv honors project, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, May 1989. Fairless is an ordained Episcopal priest, and is author of several books, including The Space Between Church and Not-Church: A Sacramental Vision for the Healing of Our Planet (Hamilton Books, 2011). Used by permission. ...

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