Merciful God, you plant each of us like seeds in the same field
and together we are nourished and nurtured by the sun.
We sway in the wind and are refreshed by the rain.
We are blessed by the knowledge that you want us to grow towards what you call us to be.

When we deprive others of that same opportunity, forgive us.
When we want to uproot those whom we believe do not belong in our part of the field, forgive us.
When we label others as good or bad rather than accept them for who they are, forgive us.
When we are reluctant to acknowledge that we ourselves are a mixture of weeds and wheat, forgive us.
When we are afraid to look into the fields of our own lives to see what is growing there, forgive us.

O God, you know us inside and out, through and through.
You search us out and lay your hand upon us.
You know what we are going to say even before we speak.
So we pray that you will help us to reach out to the uprooted and rejected,
the lonely and the outcast,
and to develop and grow the good in ourselves, in others, and in the world.
This we pray in Jesus’s name.
Amen.

(For the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2023)