let us pray to God.
Renew your Church by the working of the Holy Spirit … In quiet and humble rebirth may your people find new strength as your body in the world and show the way of salvation to all who seek.
God who loved the world even to sending the Son to be its Saviour, come among us for the healing of conflict between nations and races … Draw those who hold power and influence into the presence of Christ, to know his love and to make it their own in all their dealings.
Lift up our eyes to see the grace of God in all around us … Lift up our hearts to be his messengers to our families and friends and in our community … Help us to find in what is familiar the new birth of his love.
Have mercy on those who have lost their way and no longer seek to know God and to do his will … May the life-governing Spirit bring healing to the sick, and strength to those who minister to them.
May the souls of those who have died be gloriously born again to the eternal life where love is complete and the night of seeking turns to the perfect day … May we too in our time be born again in glory.
We pray in the name of Christ, lifted up in pain and in triumph for our sake.
THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
John 4:5–42
Let us pray to God who knows the secrets of all hearts.
May the Lord who gives the living water to all who come to him in faith, give grace to the Church, so to drink of that water that she may bring life to many … May he lift our eyes to see where the time is ripe for harvest and seek to be worthy labourers for the coming of the Kingdom.
Give the word of truth to the world, where there is strife between nations and races, where faiths can be hostile and gender divisive … May honesty overcome all shame and deceit, so that wrongs that have been hidden may be brought to light and healed.
May our Lord be with us in our homes and in all the homes of this community, to teach us by his word, to sustain us with the food of loving obedience and lead us to worship in spirit and in truth … Make us honest in our dealings with one another and repentant for our sins.
Have mercy on all whose lives are distressed by broken relationships, by misunderstandings that have turned to bitterness, by the suppressed anxiety that eats away the heart … May those who have found only partial truth be led into the right way, to know and to perform the will of God.
May those who have passed from this world, and now drink of the living water that flows from the throne of God, rejoice in the eternal worship which is beyond all place and time … May we by grace come to the same rejoicing.
We pray in the name of Christ, the Messiah of all who worship in spirit and truth.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
John 9:1–41
Let us pray to God for light and healing in the Church and in the world.
Give to the Church the perfect vision of truth and the will to serve it … Open the eyes of the faithful to the faults that hinder their ministry, so that the light may shine through them to the glory of God.
Lighten the darkness of the world where so many stumble and fall in the blindness of pride, of false trust, of power misused … When people doubt the divine love and meet with suspicion the signs of its working, let the words of those who have known it be heard above the voices of mistrust.
Give to our families and to all the homes of this community the love that remains faithful in adversity and does not fear when hostility comes from outside … In all our meeting with others, may we speak the truth with boldness and witness to the blessings that we have received.
Have mercy on all who are blind or whose sight is failing … Empower and guide those who work to treat afflictions of the eyes, and bless their skill … Give courage to parents whose children have sight problems, and bless their acts of care and love.
We pray for the departed whose sins have been washed away and who live now in the light of heaven that will never fade … Grant that we may come to share with them the perfect vision of God.
May our prayers be accepted in the name of Christ, the light of the world.
or MOTHERING SUNDAY
Luke 2:33–35
Let us pray for the Church and the world, cherished in the tender love of God.
As our Lord grew to manhood under a mother’s care, may his Church be as a mother to her children … Bless her ministers with the gift of compassion, to offer themselves in service to all who come to seek their help.
We pray for the world, that all its people may be as one family in harmony and peace … Let motherly love be the desire and the ideal of all the human race … Bless those in positions of power, that they may seek to serve and protect those under their authority.
Bless our homes with care and concern for one another … May our families be as the Holy Family in shared love and worship … Be ever close with the gift of your unfailing love to the mothers and children in our community.
Have mercy on the mothers who are in distress, those who have lost children through death or estrangement, those whose children are sick in body or mind … Grant them strength in their affliction and healing for those they love.
We pray for the departed who have known human love on earth and have passed into the divine love of heaven … May they be in peace and joy with blessed Mary and all the saints.
We pray in the name of Christ, who loves us as a mother loves her children.
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
John 11:1–45
Let us pray to God whose word is the word of life.
As Thomas and the other disciples followed their Lord in faith, give to your people the trust in him that takes away all fear … As Mary and Martha saw with their human eyes his power of resurrection, let your Church witness to his risen presence among us.
Have mercy on a world where many do not follow the way of life but choose the dark way that leads to the death of hope … May those in high places know that their power is limited and that all authority comes only from the Lord of life, the conqueror of death.
Bless our families, friends and neighbours when they are in distress and doubt … Keep us faithful to one another and to our Lord … Help us to trust in his word and to obey his commands even when the way forward is not clear to us.
Look with pity on those who mourn, especially those who feel no hope of resurrection … Strengthen all who walk in fear but are loyal to their calling … Deal tenderly with those who are at the point of death, and ease their passing.
God, in whom the dead are alive and shall never die again, receive the souls of the faithful departed … As their bodies lie in the grave, grant them eternal life in Christ, whose word they trusted in their time on earth.
We pray in the name of Christ, the Resurrection and the Life.
PALM SUNDAY
Matthew
