Category: Prayer of the Week

Gracious God, who sees through the gloom of our fears and the shades of our doubts,
we seek today to see Christ among us here at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone,
where he gathers all who hunger and thirst for new life and truth.
Today we proclaim our faith anew in Jesus, and look to you for a deeper understanding of how we are to live as people of faith.
Pour out your Spirit upon us as we start a new week and open our eyes that we may see Jesus in the everyday and doubt no more.
Amen

Amazing God, we praise you that from the silence of an empty tomb, a message of joy has spread around the world.
From the brutality of a death on the cross, healing love has touched the earth.
We pray earnestly for this healing love to touch Ukraine.
From the initial uncertainty of the first disciples, your church has grown and reached out in faith to all.
Thank you for Easter, thank you for life, thank you for your underserved Grace.
Amen

Wonderful God, thank you that you meet us right here
where we are sitting in the ordinary stuff and activities of this day.
As we journey through Holy Week, may we recognise you in Christ Jesus,
be empowered to live like him to live into the preciousness of the life that you sustain in us.
Amen

Gracious and life giving God, you who make all things new by your saving and creative love,
you who redeem the lives of your servants and reach out to those who are lost, come to us by your spirit we pray.
Sprinkle within our hearts the fragrance of your living word so that we may produce scents that are pleasing to you.
Reveal to us the things that you want us to see and strengthen us as we walk as pilgrims through this world.
We ask this humbly in Jesus’ name.
Amen

Loving God, we thank you for the precious gift of love,
which we receive from our Mothers, family and friends.
We give you thanks for the ability to care, nurture and love, which you have set deep within us.
Help us to use these gifts for the good of our families and friends
and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the one who loves us so much that he gave his life for us.
Amen

God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, you nurture and nourish the soil of our lives,
you watch over us patiently and expectantly, you fill us with the nutrients we need in order to grow,
and you rejoice when we too, nurture, protect and watch over others – in your name.
Amen

The house of God is our home, and in our hearts, we hold and cherish it,
through barren lands, through disappointment, through trouble within us and around us.
Through all our wandering in the wilderness of emptiness and distraction,
we are drawn here to worship and praise God, who makes a home with us,
whose presence fills and sustain us.
Amen

God of the wilderness, your Spirit leads us to face the truth, unprotected and exposed:
in our times of trial help us to resist the worship of empty power
so that we may find our true food in Jesus Christ, the broken bread.
Grant us, Almighty God, that through this yearly observance of Lent we may enter more deeply
into the mystery of Christ and draw upon its power in the conduct of our lives.
Amen

Holy God, mighty and immortal,
you are beyond our knowing, yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ,
whose compassion illuminates the world.
Transform us into the likeness of the love of Christ,
who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity,
the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.
Amen

God of righteousness, we adore you for the depth of your wisdom.
You see the light in us and in others that we fail to recognise,
for you are the source of that light, and you seek to nurture it, no matter what we have done.
God of love and light, we adore you.
Amen

Ever present God, you called us to be in relationship with one another
and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered.
In our community, we are many different people;
we come from many different places, have many different cultures.
Open our hearts that we may be bold in finding
the riches of inclusion and the treasures of diversity among us.
We pray in faith.
Amen

As we draw near to you, God, today, we praise your holy name
for allowing your Kingdom to break through into our lives.
We thank you for the things that are ordinary to you, God, but extraordinary to us
and we thank you for calling us to be part of your story–
ordinary people, caught in the extraordinary story of your wonderful plan for our salvation.
We give praise in Jesus’ name.
Amen

Lord God and Father,
we remember before you all those who bear the inner and outer scars of the Holocaust and of subsequent acts of genocide.
Let them not be overwhelmed by the horrors that engulfed them.
Be close to them.
Help them to see that you suffer with those who suffer,
and that no wickedness can ever extinguish your infinite love.
Restrain those who are filled with hatred and use violence to pursue their ends.
Change their hearts.
May remembrance make us alert to the reality of evil and its deceptive allure.
Help us to recognise our own capacity for evil, and allow your Spirit to purge it from our beings.
Help us to stand up against evil and oppression, even if that means we have to suffer ourselves.
Enable us to defend those who are not strong enough to defend themselves,
and to be ready to bring the light of your truth into the dark areas of human experience.
Deepen our respect for everything you have made,
and help us to share in securing the maximum good of every person who is alive in your world.
We ask this in the Name of your Son Jesus Christ,
who died for our sins, carries our sorrows,
heals our wounds, and is risen for our freedom.
Amen

Living God, who called us to serve your Son in the least of our brothers and sisters,
grant, we pray, that by the example and intercession of the saints gone by,
we may burn with love for you and for those who suffer.
Pour out your Spirit upon us, so that our hearts may possess the strong love by which you created us.
You govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of your people
and bestow your peace on our times as we ask in Jesus’ name.
Amen

Generous God,
whose Son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power.
You turned the ordinary into the extraordinary at a wedding in Cana
and so we come to you this morning,
ready for you to transform our ordinariness into something extraordinary.
Amen