By Dori Gorman, YMCA Chaplain
Dear Lord,
Thank you for new mercies this morning. Thank you for waking me up and for the breath in my lungs. May I not take what health I do have for granted. May I take stock of the small gifts all around me and within me today.
But with these new mercies, each morning I am learning of more people who are suffering. Please comfort those who are hurting, and bring healing to those who are in pain. Provide the medical personnel, the equipment and the beds needed to care for everyone who is sick with this virus. Draw near to the elderly, anyone with weakened immune systems and everyone who is capable of spreading this illness to others. May fevers break, may breathing stabilize and may bodies be strengthened.
Please protect the medical teams, hospital staff, first responders and essential workers from contracting or spreading COVID-19. Please spur on the scientists who are tirelessly searching for a medicine, an immunization, a cure. We ask for miracles—for the impossible to happen sooner rather than later.
And as we pray for those who are sick, may we also care for them. May we love our neighbors, both by physically distancing ourselves and by connecting with them in new ways. May we take care of our communities by reaching out over the phone, leaning in through video calls and lifting up with our prayers. For those of us who are not medical helpers, remind us that we can still be healers.
Lord, hear the cries of the hurting, and in your mercy, heal.
Amen.