Today we have heard of Jesus and Moses on mountaintops meeting God, experiencing transfiguration and showing it to others through a new radiance. Jesus and Moses have been marked by God. Sometimes the response to a glimpse of unearthly brightness can be fear or confusion, it can be wonder and it can be avoidance, as it was with Peter. Our response, as valley-bound followers of Christ, is to believe the God-mark and take a piece of it out to the world. When you hear "From a mountain you speak to us... We are marked by your light," please answer with, "Hear our voices".

Creator God: We are a people of the mountains and take joy in their cloud wreaths and colours against the sky. We see them as guardians, we see them as inspiration; they are our source of water, home to wild creatures, cleaners of the air we breathe and challenges to ascend and protect. They are part of who we are, and part of the way we see your presence. Let us ever be aware of you through the peaks that surround us. Make us always look up and outward. From a mountain you speak to us... We are marked by Your light...     "Hear our voices".

In our world prayer cycle today we think of the people of the lowest lands in the world, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, defined and inspired by big skies, ocean, fertile land and a rich history. In a special world prayer, we wish for the safety of all the athletes visiting Canada, and that the mountain spirit of this international Olympic event will increase understanding and good will. In our Kootenay Ministry we also pray for St. Andrew's United Church in Burton and its congregation. From a mountain you speak to us... We are marked by Your light...     "Hear our voices".

God who watches over us: Transformation can make us uncomfortable, the same way as we sometimes don't know how to react to those who have been through great sorrow and terrible events — there is something changed in their eyes for the rest of their lives. They are marked, transfigured away from selfishness by what they have seen and experienced. And so we meet those eyes and pray for the poverty-and-famine-marked people of Zimbabwe and our Methodist sister church, we pray for the conflict-marked peacekeepers and peacemakers, for war-marked Canadians serving in Afghanistan and for the sorrow-marked people of Haiti. We pray for the mourning-marked company of Georgian athletes. From a mountain you speak to us... We are marked by Your light...     "Hear our voices".s.

Comforting God: We pray for your transfiguring light and love to shine on our own broken and sorrowing people named in our Prayer List and ask that they be given what they need... From a mountain you speak to us... We are marked by Your light...     "Hear our voices".

Loving God: Leonard Cohen describes the human spirit as a "song of hallelujah", sometimes sung brokenly, but nevertheless sung. It's a song of love that we have to keep singing. We may not climb the mountain and bring down the fiery message of love as Jesus did, but we can be changed by it and carry that song of light and love wherever we go. From a mountain you speak to us... We are marked by Your light...     "Hear our voices".