We Have Spoiled the Many Gifts of Hand and Brain with Our Selfishness (Prayer)

Lord of the universe, we praise you for your creation, for the wonder of space, the beauty of the world and the value of the earth's resources. We praise you for the many different skills of hand and brain.

We recognise that we often spoil these gifts by our selfishness, and because we are sometimes distrustful and destructive.

Forgive us we pray. Help us to use all that you give to us for the good of all people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gracious Lord, we bring before you our personal failures in our daily work. We have been poor stewards of your gifts; we have not given you the glory, nor laboured in your love. We confess too the faults of our industrial society: continuing injustice, lack of harmony, the inability - and worse - the unwillingness to seek the paths of reconciliation. Have mercy upon us, and grant that, as the workshop at Nazareth was blessed through the labour of the Christ, so the workplaces of this land may be enriched by the work of those who call him 'Lord'. We ask this in his name. Amen.