About this prayer
Beginning the day with an offering places ordinary life in God’s care. We offer our work and rest, our joys and struggles, and ask for the grace to love well. The prayer below is an original morning offering for this companion; the linked Morning Prayer video offers another way to begin the day.
Prayer text
Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of this new day. I offer you my thoughts, words, work and rest, my joys and all that may be difficult. Keep me close to Jesus. Through the prayers of Mary, teach me to welcome others with kindness, to act with honesty and to serve with a generous heart. Guide my steps, forgive my failings, and help me begin again whenever I fall. May everything I do today become an offering of love. Amen.
Extended community prayer
The original prayer above is unchanged. This separate community version includes additional intentions and responses. One person leads; everyone joins in the shared parts.
Let us gather in the presence of God, remembering those who pray with us and those who cannot be here. We bring our gratitude, our needs, and our willingness to care for one another.
God of love, unite our hearts in prayer and teach us to serve you together.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of this new day. I offer you my thoughts, words, work and rest, my joys and all that may be difficult. Keep me close to Jesus. Through the prayers of Mary, teach me to welcome others with kindness, to act with honesty and to serve with a generous heart. Guide my steps, forgive my failings, and help me begin again whenever I fall. May everything I do today become an offering of love. Amen.
Community intentions
For the work and encounters before us today, help us begin with a willing heart and notice opportunities to serve.
Lord, hear our prayer, and help us become instruments of your mercy.
For those waking in pain or uncertainty, provide care and hope; let our plans leave room for another person's need.
Lord, hear our prayer, and help us become instruments of your mercy.
Pause for silent prayer. Intentions may be offered aloud freely; no one is required to share.
For the intentions spoken and those held quietly in our hearts, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, receive our prayer and sustain us in your love.
Let us entrust ourselves and those for whom we have prayed to the Father.
Merciful Father, receive our prayer through Jesus Christ. Where we can offer help, make us willing; where we must wait, give us patience. Keep us attentive to one another beyond this gathering. May the grace of this prayer take root in our homes, our work, and our choices, so that your love becomes visible through our lives. Amen.