We begin our prayers this evening with the Lenten prayer that forms part of our Lent study materials
and that we are using as the Prayer of the Week in our Sunday morning services throughout Lent:

Lenten Prayer

God who calls us on our journey, as we remember Jesus’ time in the wilderness,
help us to cast aside those things that get in the way of hearing your word.
Help us to seek you in the places of bounteous beauty and of barren bleakness.
Help us to seek you in the faces of friends and in the smiles of strangers.
Help our devotion to be made real in the actions of our lives.
When we have looked deep into our own hearts and struggled with who we are,
send angels to minister to us and draw us out from our own wilderness
to fulfil our calling to serve you.
In Christ’s name.

Amen

A reading from Psalm 107

¹ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures for ever.

² Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story –
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
³ those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.

¹⁷ Some became fools through their rebellious ways
and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.
¹⁸ They loathed all food
and drew near the gates of death.
¹⁹ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
²⁰ He sent out his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.
²¹ Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
²² Let them sacrifice thank-offerings
and tell of his works with songs of joy.

Psalm 107: 1–3 & 17–22 NIV®

A reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Ephesians 1: 3–6 NIV®

Good and gracious Lord, we give you grateful thanks for your goodness to us
and your enduring love for your whole creation and for all your people.
Help us to recognise that your love is for everybody,
and that true discipleship requires us to strive to love everyone,
and not just those people that we get along with.
We thank you for all that you have done,
through the work of doctors, health workers, scientists and carers,
to provide care and protection for all those who have suffered from the current pandemic.
May we listen to their stories and learn from them how we can play our part
in providing the love and care that you wish for all your children who are afflicted.
We thank you for the success of the vaccination programme in this country
and we pray that this same protection will be freely given to everyone throughout the world.

We praise you too, dear God, for the blessing of the gift to us of your dear Son, Jesus Christ.
By his example during his human life with us on earth, you have shown us how we must live our lives
as your chosen people and disciples of Jesus by taking your love to all those we encounter
and to our neighbours, however far-flung they may be.
You chose us, and we beg you to help us to lead lives in keeping with your calling,
always placing your will before our own.

As we come to the end of another day, and towards the end of another week,
may we reflect on all that we have experienced and all that we have encountered today.
We pray that we may ponder what we might have done better,
and what we might better have avoided, and consider how to do better next time.
Where there are issues in our lives that we have not yet been able to resolve,
we lay them prayerfully at your feet, and pray that you will guide us to recognise what we should do,
and what we should leave to your care.

Amen

So, we close our time of prayer by saying the Grace to one another,
whether we be together or far apart:

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all, evermore.

Amen