Here’s another new coronavirus prayer, to help support and encourage you in these challenging times.
Lord,
hear our prayer today for small businesses,
and larger ones too,
striving somehow to weather the storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Hear our prayer for those who have sunk their life savings into their enterprise,
or who have laboured for years to build it up from nothing into what it is today.
Help them as they attempt to cope with a devastating loss of income,
desperately trying to find ways to make ends meet,
to open their premises again safely so that they can trade again,
while ensuring that the public are protected.
We think of cafes,
restaurants,
pubs;
of hotels,
and providers of B&B and holiday accommodation;
of cinemas,
theatres,
concert halls;
of musicians,
orchestras,
choirs
and performers;
of local shops and tradespeople:
window cleaners,
plumbers,
electricians,
decorators,
among countless others.
So many have been affected, Lord,
so many have gone to the wall,
and the survival of countless others is in doubt –
not to mention the numerous staff laid off,
many from jobs they’ve loved and to which they have given long service,
yet facing now the prospect of lengthy unemployment.
Give support to those who are struggling,
and reason yet to look forward with hope to a revival of their fortunes.
Provide for those who have gone under,
especially those who have lost everything,
and grant them the opportunity to pick up the pieces and start again.
May this time of painful endings, despite everything,
give way to one of new beginnings:
to the green and welcome shoots of recovery.
Amen.