We have reached the 40th day of our 40 Days of Prayer For the Healing of Our Nation. Our final prayer is offered by the Rev. Kate Heichler, pastor at Christ Church in La Plata and Christ Church Wayside. Let us pray: I’d like to thank those who have contributed to these prayers in the past forty days - the Revs. Steve Nagy  and Don Zimmer; Kirk Vandezande; and in the previous 40 days, Elizabeth Heichler and the Revs. Adrian Dannhauser, Sarabeth Goodwin, Michele Morgan, and Peter Stebinger; and Deacons Joan Crittenden, Susan Fritz and Sara Thorne, who started this season as a layperson and became a deacon halfway through - talk about the transforming power of prayer!. And many thanks to you for bringing your faith and faithfulness to this endeavor. We are promised that our prayers to not return to us empty; God is on the move!

It is Day 39 of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, December 12th. Today’s  prayer is offered by the Rev. Sara Thorne, a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. She begins with an observation.

It is Day 38 of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, December 11th. Our prayer today comes from Kirk Vandezande, who lives and works in Toronto. Kirk offers a Prayer for our Nation during Advent, based on a prayer by Stanley Hauerwas. Let us pray.

Welcome to the 37th day of our 40 Days of Prayer For the Healing of Our Nation. Our prayer is offered by the Rev. Kate Heichler, pastor at Christ Church Wayside and Christ Church in La Plata. Let us pray:

Welcome to Day 36 of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, December 9th. Today’s  prayer is offered by the Rev. Sara Thorne, a deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. Let us pray.

On this 35th day of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, December 8th, our prayer comes from Kirk Vandezande, a member of Christ Church in La Plata who happens to live and work (and belong to a local church) in Toronto, Canada. Kirk writes by way of introduction: I heard a sermon about pride some 37 years ago. What the Rev. Ross Wright preached that day has stuck with me ever since:  "Pride does not grow well in the soil of thanks." So I pray today for a country and its people, many of whom have lost a taste for the fruit of thankfulness, and who have forgotten the lesson of the Greek word πραΰς (pra-oos) translated at Mt 5:5 as "meek," though it might better be rendered "gentle" or "steady under pressure." The prayer follows. 

It is Day 34 of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, and our prayer is offered by the Rev. Sara Thorne, a deacon in Washington, DC. 

Today, the 33rd Day of our 40 Days of Prayer For the Healing of Our Nation, is also the Feast Day of St. Nicholas of Myra, a 4th century bishop whose generosity, faithfulness and care for children and the vulnerable made him the model for our modern day Santa Claus. This prayer was written by Amy Welborn, author of St. Nicholas of Myra: A Saint for Advent and Christmas.

Welcome to Day 32 of our 40 Days of Prayer For the Healing of Our Nation. Today our prayer is offered by the Rev. Kate Heichler, pastor at Christ Church Wayside and Christ Church in La Plata. Let us pray.

On this 31st day of our 40 Days of Prayer for the Healing of Our Nation, December 4th, Deacon Joan Crittenden offers our prayer.