Hunger Is Not a Disease

Another Year Has Begun Again

Another year has begun again.  (And, far too quickly, too.)

As I begin another year fighting hunger, God, my time with the pantry is in your hands.

Give me patience again, O God.  And let me remember that it’s my job to offer the best, most delicious, nutritious food I can find for the hungry.

It is not my job to end hunger.  Let me remember, God, that you have your own timetable.

As a year begins give me  wisdom and grace to serve the hungry with respect and honor…which they deserve.  Give me energy and strength to trust that those who have enough will continue to give so we will have the money to continue to feed the hungry as long as we need to.

Donations to the food bank have worked beautifully up to now, God.  Give me the strength to trust the system to work in the new year too.  Let me trust in the miracles of this system.

And, God, thank you for giving me comfort when I grow discouraged.  Forgive me for not being stronger.

Thank you for giving the money, volunteers, and resources the pantry needs to continue to feed the ever increasing number of people whose paychecks are not going up but their gasoline, rent, and food costs are rising.

Thank you for the miracles you give us daily.

I say these things in your name and with gratitude from the bottom of my heart, O God.

Amen

Thank you for reading this blog post!

Please refer this prayer to your favorite social media network.

This prayer is one of a series of entries I’m writing to go in a memoir about hunger.  It will be entitled “I Don’t Hang Out In Churches  Anymore – the story of hunger as told through prayer”.

Thurman Greco

Prayer for the Hungry – Number 3

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I stand before you humbly, O Holy One, the One God of Israel as I offer a prayer for the hungry .

I offer thanksgiving, praises, blessings in this prayer for the hungry.

I ask for your forgiveness and mercy, O God.  All life is in Your hands.

I come to you humbly, asking for protection – not for myself but for those hungry individuals and families who shop in food pantries everywhere.  This hunger weaves the souls of these shoppers together for all time.

Grant them hope and strength to travel through their days  courageously.

O Holy One, give them grace, mercy, harmony, peace.

Teach those of us working in pantries  to have patience as we support the hungry in their struggle to carry on day after day after day against all odds.

Please let us remember that,  through religious teaching everywhere,   we know You feed all of us – not only physically but spiritually.  Let this awareness  give the hungry confidence that their needs are being met.  Let this knowledge inspire us to make sure that everyone shopping at pantries everywhere receives the food and support necessary to carry on in the never relenting struggle.  Remind us continually that we are doing Your work.

Help us choose the right words as we communicate with the hungry so that a chance remark won’t make things worse.

Make us always aware of the hungry who are homeless and suffering with mental illness.  May you grant them complete healing – of body, mind, and spirit.

O God to Whom we all Pray, I offer you my most sincere gratitude for all you have don, are doing, and will do for those of us who suffer with hunger and homelessness.

And, now I say Amen.

Prayer for the Hungry – Number 2

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O Heavenly Father

I offer You gratitude for all Your blessings and love which You continually share with parents struggling with underemployment, poor health, insufficient food, transportation challenges.

I ask You, the source of all living things, to protect and guard parents who shop at the pantry.

Help them listen to their children’s needs as they struggle to live a life with insufficient resources… time, money, housing, health care.

Offer the peace which can only come when they know that You are a part of their lives every day.

O Heavenly Father, help them overcome their greatest fear – hunger.

Guide their lives so that no one in their household is hungry.

Encourage them to see the positive aspects of their lives.

Teach them to co-create abundance

Give them the courage to reach out when their needs are overwhelming.

Let them know that  they can be secure in their paths.

Teach them to travel through their lives with grace.

Offer them the wisdom they need to hear Your guidance.

When, if…they question the struggle, please let them know You are with them always.

Please, gently touch their lives with your healing hands when health issues become almost too much to bear.

I ask these things in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

 

Thank you for reading this blog dedicated to food pantries.

Please share this prayer on your preferred social media network.

Thurman Greco

Woodstock, NY

Art Work  donated by Jennette Nearhood