Prayers for Ordinary 23

Prayers by Mrs Delia Shephard

Holy God, we are gathered in your church to offer our prayers for ourselves and for the world.  But often we want to keep our church separate from the world  - we want to keep our own hands clean, we don’t want to be defiled by the dirt of the world or contaminated by different views and ideas. This morning let us offer up our prayers for a church resistant to change, sometimes rigid in practice and unbending in attitude.  Help us to change and break down the barriers we have created for others to cross.

Lord in your mercy, hear out prayer.

Holy God, we pray too for those in political power who don’t want to be tainted by contact with the poor and the oppressed or with unpopular causes;
for those of us who have enough and to spare but who do not want our enjoyment ruined by thoughts of the hungry and homeless;
for those of us happy in our cosy circles of family and friends who do not want those circles pulled out of shape by reaching out to the lonely and outcast.    Fill us with love for all our sisters and brothers.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Holy God, we want to sing your praises but often we let you down with our words as well as our deeds.  We pray now for those of us who find it hard to remember the feelings and needs of others and give way to destructive anger and spiteful gossip;
for those of us who find it hard to know what good, helpful and loving things to say to people in pain, anxiety or sorrow;
for those of us who find it hard to express  commitment to you and your way in words and actions.  Purify our hearts and lives.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Holy God, we rejoice that you are the Lord who restores and redeems.  Jesus Christ is the light of the world which eternally shines and brings hope.  We remember before God those who have died and light a candle to symbolise that light.  We call to mind all our loved ones departed but especially this morning we remember :

may they rejoice in the fullness of your presence and may those of us who mourn them be comforted by your love and peace.

We ask these prayers in the name of Jesus, who came to reach out to the whole world: to the sinner, the sick and the outcast and to be the word of life to all people.  Amen.