Prayer for a Living Wage
Living God, we confess that we have not fully accepted the challenge of seeking Your justice in the world. We define justice in ways that preserve our own self-interest, forgetting that Your justice may call us to great sacrifice.
We pray for workers whose wages are so low that they face terrible choices between paying the rent and feeding their families. God of compassion, hear our prayer.
We pray that the courageous cries of workers for justice will be heard by their employers, by the community, and by our government. God of compassion, hear our prayer.
We pray for employers in our city, that they will accept their responsibility to pay their workers enough to live. God of compassion, hear our prayer.
We pray for companies that abuse the dignity of their workers and refuse to see their employees as brothers and sisters. God of compassion, hear our prayer.
We pray for all the citizens of our community, that we will hold our government and businesses in our community accountable for the ways they treat their workers.
God of compassion, hear our prayer.
Hear now O God the prayers that we lift aloud or in silence to you.
Rebekah Jordan
God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the worker. Make a place in our hearts for compassion to the men and women who labor tirelessly for basic necessities.
Ensure a place for the men and women who are struggling to find work. Grant us your wisdom to greet and care for those who are unable to work due to illness or circumstances that prevent their participation.
Be with the children who are not able to run and play, but instead must put in a hard day’s work to help their family afford to eat, to live.
Be with us all, Christ Jesus, as we go about the busyness of our work. Hold us accountable not only for our actions, but most importantly to each of our neighbors. May we continue to work together to bring about your reign! We ask this in your holy name, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Prayer for Workers
Loving, Working God,
On this day we ask your special blessing on all people who labor, either for pay or as volunteers, in jobs or at school, in the workplace or at home, in the U.S. and around the world.
We especially pray for your blessings on workers who do not have jobs and for those whose inadequate pay does not allow them to live the full life you intend for each of us.
Creator God, help us to build a new world in the midst of the old.
A world where all workers are valued.
A world where those who clean houses are also able to buy houses to live in.
A world where those who grow food can also afford to eat it.
A world where those who serve and care for others are, themselves, also served and cared for.
We pray for the coming of a world where all workers everywhere share in the abundance that you have given us.
We ask these things knowing that you give us the courage and strength to live.
United Church of Christ
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