However, this week, I will especially be holding all of our students and their parents, teachers, and other school professionals in prayer because it is back to school time!
Back to school time is a lot like a new year – full of hopes and dreams and nervousness and changes. As a kid, I loved the annual trip to buy new clothes and new school supplies. There is something about a brand new, never-written-in notebook that still fills me with a bit of that delight and hope from my formative years.
I invite you all at Calvary to join me in prayers for our young people and their families and their school communities. Below are a couple of prayers you can use to pray with me this week:
Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, “For those we love,” p831)
God of wisdom, you created us in your image, igniting in us the fire of curiosity. Help us to know the joy of discovery as we unlock the mysteries of numbers, dig deep into the science of the earth, escape to mysterious lands in the majesty of great books, write our own stories of adventure, travel the globe in the breath of a new language, and become historians of the past and inventors of the future; Bless these tools of learning—our backpacks, pencils, paper, laptops, tablets, that we might have the courage to continue to learn and the conviction to change the world. In your name we pray, Amen. (“A Backpack Blessing,” Lucy Breidenthal, Episcopal Diocese of New York)
Join us on Sunday, August 23rd as we bless the backpacks of our Calvary students and teachers for the new school year so they can be confident in God’s love for them this school year and beyond.
