A Blessing for the Labors of Community
Adapted from Every Moment Holy Vol. 1 

By Douglas Kaine McKelvey

We gather together because we believe

that we are called together into a work

we cannot yet know the fullness of. 

Still, we trust the voice of the 

One who has called us. 

And so we offer to you, O God:

Our dreams, our plans, our vision

--shape them as you will. 

Our moments and our gifts

--use them as you will.  

Richly bless the work before us, O God. 

Shepherd us well lest we grow enamored 

of our own accomplishment

or entrenched in old habit. 

Instead let us listen for your voice, 

our hearts ever open 

to the quiet beckonings of your Spirit. 

Let us in true humility and poverty of spirit

remain ever ready to move

at the impulse of your love. 

You alone, O God, 

by your gracious and life-giving Spirit

have power to knit our pain and our joys,

our stories, and our gifts, one to another. 

May our acts of love and creation, 

frail and wanting as they are, 

be met and multiplied by the mysterious

workings of your Spirit,

who weaves all things together

toward a life more full

than we yet have eyes to see, 

or courage to hope for. 

May our love and our labors

now echo your love

and your labors, O Lord. 

Let all that we do here

in these our brief lives, 

in this our brief moment to love, 

in the work of this community, 

flower in winsome and beautiful foretaste

of greater glories yet to come. 

O Spirit of God, 

Now shape our hearts. 

O Spirit of God, 

Now guide our hands. 

O Spirit of God, 

Now build your kin-dom among us. 

Amen.