Help me to see our work leading this organization as your work, bringing about the environment that would make you proud and delighted.

You have entrusted many kind and talented people to our company, support us so that we might be worthy of their trust and have in mind their best interests and those of our customers and our shareholders.

Lord, is not capitalism a good, if imperfect way to organize.   Some people provide resources for others to establish businesses, employ people who support themselves and their families and expect a fair return so that they too may be secure.

Grant us transparency with the markets, so that people’s expectations will be in line with reality and probability of success.   I want to be positive but please guide us to resist the temptation to create a narrative that is manipulative, or financial maneuvering that might bring short term success but put our enterprise and our people in jeopardy.

I pray for a genuine respect for all our constituents: those who provide capital, those who supply us, those who convert resources into products that are helpful to our customers and most of all our customers. Help us to challenge those who would utilize the worst of our system for their personal gain.

Amen

Section 2, Scripture: 2 Kings 23:1-3; MT 5:5-14

Hebrew Scripture

New Testament

The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned before him.2The king went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: priests, prophets, and all the people, great and small. He read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.a3The king stood by the column and made a covenant in the presence of the LORD to follow the LORD and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees with his whole heart and soul, and to re-establish the words of the covenant written in this book. And all the people stood by the covenant. 2 Kings 23:1-3 USCCB

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.6 But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.7 In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. The Lord’s Prayer. 9 “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread; 12 and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; 13and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions. MT 6:5-14 USCCB

 

Section 3:  You may wish to be silent for a few minutes.

Section 4: Offer prayer in your own words speaking to God who is for us, with us and in us.