Prayers for Labor Day

A Responsive Prayer for Workers and our Nation

Liturgist: God, give us the imagination we need today to live in a land where justice and compassion flourish.
People: Lord, hear our prayer.

Liturgist: God, show us how to provide, so that across this land everyone who needs a job has one. Give us the resolve to make this a nation where no one earns less than a living wage; where compensation between genders—right down to each shiny penny—is equal and men and women are equally valued; where those who cannot work and the elderly are fully provided and cared for; where immigrants are free from exploitation; where corporations give equal weight to social responsibility and profitability.
People: Lord, hear our prayer.

Liturgist: God, help us to make fair trade of goods and services between nations standard practice, promoting genuine global harmony. Fill us with the wisdom to aid our nation to support the wise use of global resources with the aim of providing everyone with fair wages and livable economic conditions.
People: Lord, hear our prayer

Liturgist: Creator God, transform our world, and transform our hearts and minds. Make us into one people, your people. Amen.

(This prayer is excerpted from one written for the UCC 2004 Neighbors in Need offering.

A Prayer for a Living Wage

Living God, we confess that we have not fully accepted the challenge of seeking your justice in
our world. Too often, we define justice in ways that preserve our own self-interest, forgetting thatyour justice may call us to sacrifice.

Today, on Labor Day weekend, we pray for workers whose wages are so low that they face
terrible choices between paying rent and feeding families.
God of compassion, hear our prayer.

We pray for employers in our own community, that they will be willing and able to accept their
responsibility to pay their employees enough to live.
God of compassion, hear our prayer.

We pray that those in positions of power and with the ability to affect change will not remain deaf to the courageous cries of those in need.
God of compassion, hear our prayer.

Adapted from “Prayer for a Living Wage” by Rev. Rebekah Jordan, Mid-South Interfaith Network for Economic Justice.