Monday Morning Offering: LABOR DAY

Image: George Mendoza

Two Monday Morning Offerings to choose from today!

LABOR DAY MORNING OFFERING 1

Good morning, good God!

This Labor Day, Lord,
I'm grateful for the world you created
and that I, too, 

am the work of your hands:
    You formed my inmost being, 
    you knit me in my mother's womb...*

How can it be that you took the time,
    before time was,
to imagine my being,
to consider even for a moment
    that I would exist:
to conceive of me
    before I was conceived?

And then from the love of two,
    you made, you fashioned me 
        in your own image - and in theirs
and gave me a soul you'd given no other
    and breathed in me
        the breath of your own life...

How great are your works, O Lord,
and how grateful am I
    that this life of mine
        is truly the work of your hands...

Who am I that you should be mindful of me,
    watch over, hold and care for me?
Yet you've crowned me with glory and honor:**
    your love, my crown,
    your mercy, my glory,
    your grace, my joy...

Without you, Lord, I am nothing;
    without you
        - I am not...

You created me, Lord,
    the work of your hands,
and this morning I offer
    the work of my hands,
knowing that all that I have and hold
    was first your gift to me...

 

On this Labor Day, Lord, I offer my work
    and pray you'll deem it worthy and true; 

I'm humbled that my hands share in your work

    and that your hands share in mine...

And I pray, Lord, for those who have no work
    and for those whose work is too much to bear:
lift up and help the jobless, Lord 
    and lighten the load of the weary...

Make me mindful, Lord, of all the ways
    you quietly move in my life
through the work of those whose paths cross mine,

    whose labor supports and protects me...

Amen.

 *Psalm 139

**Psalm 8

LABOR DAY MORNING OFFERING 2

Good morning, good God!

Another Monday morning, Lord,
the first one in September, Labor Day:
    summer’s end, fall’s debut,
        and a day off - for those who have a job…

Grant a day of rest (a Sabbath plus)
    to the tired, spent and burned out,
to those who are working two jobs or more,
    and those whose work brings them no satisfaction...

And I lift up into your hands, O Lord,
    those who have no job at all,
    who’ve searched in vain 

        for months, for years, 

    for work to d0, to pay the bills, 

        to make ends meet,
    to help them just get by…

I offer to your mercy, Lord,

those still not justly paid,
    whose rights have no defenders,
    whose work sites fail to rise to standards
        decent, clean, humane…

I lift up to your care, O Lord,
    the chronic work-a-holics 

who, forgetting friends and family,

    forsake their rest and leisure,

        and the joy that rest can bring...

I offer you my thanks, O Lord,
    for those who work for workers' rights

who toil for those whom others cheat 

    - and use with no respect for human life...

Lord, lift up those who work too much,

    who work too hard, too long
and refresh the hearts of those who've found

    their working days are done...

Move the minds and hearts of those
    who hire and employ;
make just and fair the laborer’s lot
    and safe each place where work is done…

 

Refresh the weary worker, Lord
    and lead the jobless back to work;

may all our work be done well

    and give glory to your name...

 

Amen.

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