Psalm 23:1-15
To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed;
Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.
4 Make me know Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
For You I wait all the day.
6 Remember, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
According to Your lovingkindness remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in justice,
And He teaches the humble His way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth
To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.
13 His soul will abide in prosperity,
And his descendants will inherit the land.
14 The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him,
And He will make them know His covenant.
15 My eyes are continually toward the Lord,
For He will pluck my feet out of the net.
This coming Sunday in worship we will be doing the Blessing of the Backpacks. It will be a short prayer over all of our students with a treat at the end. For those who have more deep -seated anxieties or are unable to attend Sunday, here is another liturgy from a website called Pathos. It can be read and printed to be carried in backpacks or binders. God bless.
~A Service for a New School Year ~
O God of new beginnings, new life, and new journeys, you sent Abraham and Sarah into a new land; you led Moses, Aaron and Miriam out of Egypt and into liberation; you led your Son our Savior to earth, to the cross, and into resurrection. Walk with us, we pray, as we enter into a new year, a new path, new opportunities. Amen.
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but Jesus was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed.
Matthew 8:23-28
We will get overwhelmed by tests, homework, and activities, and we will wonder how we will make it through.
Grant us quiet confidence and calm, bear our stress with us, help us to ask for help when it gets to be too much.
Our teachers, parents, and friends will frustrate us. They will be unfair, they will hurt us, and they just won’t get what we’re going through.
Give us peace and rest in the midst of the storms raging around us and inside us.
We will be measured, tested, and judged, and we will be asked to measure our worth in how well we perform, the grades we make, and the friends we have.
Comfort us in the knowledge that you have already judged us and found us to be good, made us worthy, and called us by name.
We will be tempted to despair and see ourselves as worthless and unlovable.
When we cannot find our way, remind us that, to you, O God, the darkness is not dark, the night is as light as day, and even if we make our beds in hell, still there you will be beside us.
We will see darkness. We will see it in injustice, hate, exploitation, mean- spiritedness, and bullying of our peers. We will be tempted to join in.
Give us courage to resist and empower us to be your beloved people: loving others and standing up for the oppressed.
We will want popularity: we will want to fit in, even at the expense of others and we will wish to be people other than ourselves, the people you created us to be.
Remind us our identity, given in baptism, to be your sons and daughters.
We will want to hold grudges, gripe, and gossip when we are wounded.
Empower us by your grace to forgive as you have forgiven.
A Gathering of Hopes and Fears
Almighty God, to whom our needs are known before we ask: Help us to ask only what accords with your will; and those good things which we dare not, or in our blindness cannot ask, grant us for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Source: Book of Common Prayer)
Fears and frustrations can be prayed here
A General Thanksgiving
Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.
Closing Blessing
Live without fear: your Creator has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Go in peace to follow the good road and may God’s blessing be with you always. Amen
