We give you thanks, O God, for all that is good and kind and just. For all the wonders of nature that speak of your continuing divine presence: the sunrise and sunset, the rainbow, the waterfall, the roaring ocean and the quiet stream, the majestic mountain peak and the serene desert.

We give you thanks for people who, throughout history, have had profound and simply stated insight into your presence in all that is around us. We give thanks, too, for artists, poets, musicians, people of different faiths, different cultures, different times and different places… each has helped us to affirm that, bidden or not, you are with us—even in times of deepest darkness and doubt.

We give thanks that in a particular time and place Jesus was born and lived among us and spoke to us in ways that again affirmed your presence. Jesus’ words, his life and his ministry gave us insight as to who we are, what we can be and how we can live life in your image.

When he faced death, he reminded us that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we never walk alone. During his last meal he gave us a continuing memorial.

For on the night he was betrayed, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to his disciples and said: “Take and eat, this is my body given for you.” He also took a cup and said: “As often as you drink this, drink in remembrance of me.”

In the company of those who have gone before, prophets and apostles, disciples and martyrs, men and women, young and old, people of profound faith and profound doubt, we now share this bread and this cup, in the affirmation that the continuing spirit of the Jesus will make us all…one in you...and…you in us…in his name we pray. Amen.