Prayer: May Nothing Evil Cross This Door (Hymn #1, SLT)

Eternal Spirit, from whom all things come and to all things return

We gather in community this morning with hope and gratitude

We sing our potent hymn of prayer for our community:

May nothing evil cross this door.

So much of the world beyond our doors is fraught

with suffering, hardship, Cruelty, bigotry and hate.

We prayer that evil, remains out there, beyond our walls

Here, we sing, we shall be safe.

Here, we sing, we shall sanctify every casual corner

and peace shall walk through our hallways.

Here, we sing, the roar and rain will go by.

Yet we do not have a gate on our door to bar evil or the flood of rain and river.

O Spirit we have no gate at our door

when we sing of nothing evil crossing our door.

We hold our door with prayer and with promise.

And when our doors and walls are breached by tragedy and evil, when the doors and walls of our homes and the homes of our friends and loved ones are breached as they were this week by flood waters, as they were ten years ago by the tragedy of the September 11^th terrorist attack,

What can we do, but sing again and pray again and promise again.

We hold our door with prayer and promise.

And indeed these sheltering walls are thin,

yet they are strong enough to keep hate out and hold love in

O Spirit when trouble moves into our homes and across our doors may we be graceful enough to continue to reach out – to reach out and help others and to reach out to receive the help of others.

O Spirit that moves through our hearts

and kindles the conscience to allow truth and compassion to reside therein,

help us to keep our walls strong and our doors open that all may come

and receive the blessings that are held here.

May all who come through our doors know the peace that walks softly

through our halls and through our hearts.

May our walls be strong enough.

And may we be strong enough to keep hate out and hold love in.

In the name of all that is holy,

May it be so

• Prayer