Evening Prayer Thursday, 25 June 2020
A reading from Psalm 133
1 How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
…
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing,
even life for evermore.
Psalm 133: 1 & 3 NIV®
We pray for unity in your Church of Christ the Cornerstone.
In our prayers, may we peacefully and quietly wait for your still, small voice to speak to us.
We pray for discernment, help us to listen to your words
when spoken through the mouths of others.
God of surprises, please may we recognise your words, however they may reach us.
You speak to us in many ways, and words are only a part of the story.
Speak to us in the song of the birds and the beauty of flowers.
Open our ears to hear your voice in the cry of a baby,
in the begging pleas of the homeless and unwanted,
in the silent withdrawal of the lonely and the anxious.
We pray that we can see through our differences to recognise that we can do your will
only when we work together as the living body of your risen Son.
We all have our contributions to make;
grant that we each have the resolve to contribute to your work,
the humility to allow others to make their contributions to the same mission goal,
and the generosity of spirit to encourage one another in our common endeavours.
Tonight we give you thanks for all that we have lived through today;
we recognise that it is through our experiences, both good and bad,
that we learn to trust you and put our faith in you.
We bring before you all the difficulties that we have been unable to resolve
and place them at your feet, leaving them there for you to help us come to understand them better.
We praise you, and we thank you for all those dedicated workers
who tend the sick, the dying, the vulnerable, the bereaved.
Be with them all and shield them from harm.
We end our prayers with another reading from the Psalms and then by saying the Grace together.
1 Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord
who minister by night in the house of the Lord.
2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
and praise the Lord.
3 May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 134 NIV®
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
