Evening Prayer Friday, 2 October 2020
In 2007, the United Nations agreed to adopt 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, as the International Day of Non-Violence. So, on this Friday evening, I will use some words of Gandhi to inform our prayers.
Let us pray:
Loving God, as we come to you in prayer this evening,
we thank you for all that you have given to us.
So many of your gifts enrich our lives: the changing seasons;
all that we see from our windows;
the sounds that we hear, whether it is music or bird song, or even the roar of traffic.
We thank you, too, for all that you have taught and continue to teach us:
through the Bible,
through wise people we have met
and through the lives of others we read about.
Amen
Reflecting tonight on words of Mahatma Gandhi, who died before many of us were born, we bring you our thanks and our requests for your help and guidance. As we continue to learn and grow, may we always look to you.
Each of the prayers which follow will be preceded by some words of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi wrote, It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing.
We thank you for your word, which teaches us through Jesus’s example,
the principles by which you want us to live our lives.
We are sorry that we do not always act as Jesus would
and pray that you will keep us faithful to the Gospel,
thinking, before we act how, you would wish us to respond to others
and not looking for any reward,
except that of knowing that we are doing your will.
In all our thoughts and actions, teach us to listen for your voice.
Open our ears to hear and our hearts to respond to your word.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
We thank you, Loving God, that we have free choice.
We ask that we may use this wisely,
following Jesus’s example in the decisions that we take.
We know too, that we often neglect to do things which might help other people
or which you are calling us to do.
We are truly sorry that we do not always consider the needs of others before our own.
Thank you that we know we can turn to you for forgiveness,
provided we acknowledge what we have done wrong
and try to put it right.
In all our thoughts and actions, teach us to listen for your voice.
Open our ears to hear and our hearts to respond to your word.
Poverty is the worst form of violence.
In a world where some people waste food,
throw away clothes because they are out of fashion
and have never needed to search for appropriate housing,
we are ashamed that there are many others
who do not have a permanent secure place to live and look after their family,
thatmany families still need to look to Food Banks for support
and someparents go without
to provide new shoes when their children outgrow them.
We pray for people throughout the world
who cannot feed, clothe or house themselves or their family adequately.
We thank you for charities such as Shelter,
Oxfam and the Milton Keynes Food Bank,
which strive to provide homes, relieve poverty and feed those in crisis.
Support and encourage those who volunteer and work for them.
We pray too that those who receive such support
be treated in a way that enables them to feel valued,
so that they do not lose their self-respect.
In all our thoughts and actions, teach us to listen for your voice.
Open our ears to hear and our hearts to respond to your word.
We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.
Loving God, when we pray for peace in the world,
remind us of those things we do which do not show your love in action.
When we are tempted to criticise the behaviour of others,
remind us to look at ourselves
and put right any thoughts and actions which do not honour you.
In all our thoughts and actions, teach us to listen for your voice.
Open our ears to hear and our hearts to respond to your word
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.
Loving God, we know that many people in this world,
in this country and in this city struggle to make ends meet.
We pray that you will remind us of our responsibility to make your ways known.
Teach us not to keep quiet when we hear of decisions taken in our name
at local and national level which will not make for a fairer society.
May we strive to support those who work through Local Government
or charities to improve the lives of those who suffer in our community.
May we, as individuals and as a church,
do our best to find effective ways to work together with others to help those in need.
In all our thoughts and actions, teach us to listen for your voice.
Open our ears to hear and our hearts to respond to your word
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
We thank you, Loving God, for leaders whose words we respect,
which continue to inspire us long after they were first spoken.
We thank you that this statement reminds us not to be cast down
by listening to those with the loudest voices,
by those who ride roughshod over the poor and who incite violence and hatred.
If we seek carefully and listen attentively,
we can still find many people who work for justice,
support the powerless and put the welfare of others before their own needs.
And so, for all who inspire us by showing love and concern for others –
We thank you, Loving God.
And now, as we come to the end of our prayers this evening, we pray for peace.
Loving God, we pray that you will help us to do our part to build fruitful relationships,
and that all may see one another with your eyes.
That there may be peace in the world,
peace in our nation, peace in our city and peace in our lives.
Amen
Let us join together in the words of the Grace:
May the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with us all now, and for ever more.
Amen
Rosemary Kearsey
