Time Out!

Posted on by Rev. Cleo Graham

Please stop what you’re doing at 1:11 pm. Declare a time out from whatever you’re doing. Pause for a moment and be present in body, mind, and spirit. Virtually, join with others who park and pray at 1:11 pm.

I wrote this prayer at the end of Supreme Court Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s three days of Confirmation Hearings. I needed a time out and I am certain she deserved the same. Let us welcome God’s Holy presence in our lives. Let us park and pray at 1:11 pm. 

Gracious, Loving, Holy, Merciful God, we enter your presence with praise and thanksgiving. You are a constant source of love, power, strength, and healing. Your peace calms raging seas and overcomes deadly forces. God, we need You today. God have mercy on us. Help us to overcome the pandemic nature of hatred that is killing the souls of nations throughout our world. 

Give us strength to peacefully overcome limitations, distrust, disappointments, and dissatisfactions. Help us to resist the temptations to allow hatred and fear to guide us and flourish in our heart. Holy One, arrest acts of aggressions. Arrest each situation and desire to stop a Black woman judge from being her great self in service for all people in our nation. 

God, it’s hard to recall a time of peaceful reflection. It’s hard to imagine the growth of a diverse nation of leaders in my lifetime. Too many are weighed down by a pandemic of racial discord. It becomes a deadly force that prevents a Brown and Black gifted person from being celebrated as a member of one nation under God.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a confident, intelligent, stately, and an accomplished woman of color whose brilliance is perceived as a threat. Her faith in God is familiar to many of us, and her desire to serve You and your children are not self- serving. She is faithful and faith filled. Thank You for her life. Loving God, help all who gather in her presence to hear her and to discern Your message for us. We pray for a Time Out so we may check out the righteous desires of the God we serve.

When books fall off the shelves, and the pages open to God’s plan we pray to You O’ God who prepares a place for her even in the presence of her enemies. God, anoint her with the oil of gladness. Deliver her from the depths of evil. For it is Your presence, Your power, Your love, and Your glory that is our hope and strength. We give thanks O God now and always. Amen.

A Prayer for Renewed Hope

Posted on by Rev. Cleo Graham

 Rev. Cleo Graham

A National World Day of Prayer

Dear God,

She said she only had today.

She doesn’t have a tomorrow.

She said she can’t go on.

Her reality is the destruction that surrounds her. 

It’s the sounds of pain, suffering, babies crying, many people dying.

A panic-stricken mother frantically escaped a bombed hospital and delivered her baby whom she named Veronica, which means victory.

How shall we help her and others like her whose hope is lost? Help her parents, siblings, children, neighbors, strangers, friends, and those who will be born in a war torn country?

What can we give up, send, do without, live without and sanction? 

We fast and we pray to You Merciful God.

Almighty God, we depend on You. 

We need Your power for the death toll is rising .

We cannot watch the news without feeling as if there’s something we should do.

 We pray for our neighbors.

We pray for deliverance from evil. 

We pray that Your truth will prevail today.

We pray for Your Holy Healing Power.

We pray for Your Divine protection of human life and human rights.

We pray for Your Grace and Peace O Heavenly Father and Mother.  

We pray for surely You inspire and equip us to be Peacemakers. 

Help us to love our neighbors enough to end the massive destruction of lives

Help us to care for one another in Ukraine, Mississippi, Somalia, and elsewhere. 

We pray without ceasing on this 

National World Day of Prayer.

We Park and Pray at 1:11 pm, daily.

You give us hope and renew our strength. 

We give thanks and praise, to You Almighty God whose love endures forever.

We pray in Thy Holy Name.

Hear our prayers O God. Amen.

Take My Hand Lord

Posted on by Rev. Cleo Graham

Take my hand Lord lead me to that blessed holy place where I can see a glimpse of the heavenly promise that you have made to your people.

Fill me with wisdom so that I may know which path to take.
Strengthen me so that my soul will not waiver but that I may be ready and able to do the work to which I have been called. It is your Holy Spirit that points me to the way of deliverance through your son Jesus Christ, my strength and my redeemer.

Take my hand Lord that I may be led out of the wilderness to a place of peace and joy. Amen

Rev. Barbara Smith

Ashes & Dust

Posted on by Rev. Cleo Graham

As we begin the Lenten Season…

let us begin with prayer:

O Holy and Great God lead us through the wilderness as you led Moses and the Hebrew people. Let us use this time wisely to repent, reflect and recharge. Lead us in your righteousness and help us to make room in our lives for for Jesus. Amen

Rev. Barbara Smith

Aren’t They Women Too?

Posted on by Rev. Cleo Graham
Sojourner Truth

She wore a Gray dress and a white turban when she delivered her infamous message, “Ain’t I a Woman?” Many wondered about the identity of this Woman of Color who competently stepped into a crowded space and asked the question. “Ain’t I a Woman?” It was a time when women, Colored people, and former slaves did not have a public voice.

Who was Sojourner Truth and who is she today? Who are the women who dared to change history? Let us remember them in our prayers as we celebrate their contributions during Women’s History month.

Let’s Park and Pray at 1:11 pm. Dear God,

We thank you for carrying her across each threshold of life. She wore a godliness on her face that frightened those who refused to let her speak before the crowd. But thank You Dear God for the many times when You ordered her steps. Thank You for putting wings on her back. You cause her to rise above the fray and transcend the bondage of enslaved people and overcome the ignorance of our times.

She was adorned with a halo around her head that appeared like a strobe light that shined along her path. Today, many of us imagine hearing her infamous message. “Ain’t I a Woman?” These words were spoken by Sojourner Truth (1797- 1883), born a slave in New York State. In 1827, she gained her freedom, and in 1843, she changed her birth name from Isabella to Sojourner to reflect her heart and Light inspired by the gift of Your Holy presence in her life. O God, Light of the world. Your Light shined everywhere she walked. You revealed to her, “There was no place where God was not.” As One who answered her prayers and our prayers. Thank you God.

You called Jarena Lee, a pioneer to preach the gospel. She claimed you approved her. We celebrate Women’s History this month and throughout the year. “For in Christ, there is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

We remember Sisters of Mercy, Nurses and other volunteers who went throughout the land helping many who were stricken by yellow fever. These women carried the necessities of life to those who were in need. She prayed and saved many lives. Thank you God for being with Women throughout our history. We pray now and always. Amen.