All Are Welcome to Give Thanks at the Table of Mercy
This prayer of thanksgiving was written for Mercy Education by Sisters Sandra Hernández López, Masbely Del Cid, and Isabel Jovel Cabrera, all of whom minister to children living with HIV/AIDS at Casa Corazón de la Misericordia in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. A printable version of the prayer is available here.
“People from east and west, from north and south, will come to sit at the table of the Kingdom of God.” Lk 13:29
Infinite Wisdom and unfathomable Mystery,
Today we are summoned together around your Mercy, the very table and bread that nourish and strengthen us to live with joy and hope. We are ever mindful of our challenges and the struggles facing our sisters and brothers around the world.
We thank you for the marvelous gift of life flowing through every neutron, atom, molecule, cell of all your creation. Give us a heart full of love to care for this gift.
We thank you for all the material, intellectual and spiritual goods with which you have showered us. Do not allow us to forget the marginalized, the excluded and the impoverished.
We thank you for the family, friends and community that are part of our lives, offering us support, security, identity, values, traditions and culture.
Enable us to celebrate differences and to extend a welcome to all those who have had to flee from their beloved land.
We thank you for our health and that of our families and friends. Heal all who suffer from viruses and diseases. Be with all the health professionals who seek to assist those who have been affected.
We thank you for the lives of all those with whom we have shared life, whom you have called into your presence. Accompany the families of the dying and the deceased in their experience of grief and allow them to feel your peace.
We thank you for the food that nourishes and strengthens us daily. Make us aware that greed and waste of food result in millions of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
We thank you for the Bread of Life who is Jesus Christ. May it continue to nourish us in our efforts and hopes to make present Your Kingdom of Justice and Mercy.
We thank you for the ability to share in the joy found at the table, the meal and our companionship. Make us aware that we are interconnected with all your creation.
(Here you are invited to recall those things for which you give thanks.)
This we pray in the spirit of thanksgiving. Amen.
