Morning Prayers Friday, 24 April 2020

Good morning, everyone. I hope you had a restful night.

I have chosen this morning’s Bible passage to reflect the fact that, although we cannot meet together in one place, nevertheless we are able to join together in our common faith and common concerns.
I also wanted to remember that Friday is the day when we usually hold our service of Prayers for Peace in the Chapel.
So it seemed appropriate to draw on prayers that I have prepared in the past for one of those services.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4: 11–13

In our prayers of intercession,
we remember people who are experiencing difficult and stressful times wherever they live –
members of our own congregations,
people in our own community,
people in other parts of our country,
or throughout the world.

Let us pray:

Let us remember people everywhere who are anxious:

those who are worried about their health, or that of those they love;
those who are concerned about financial insecurity;
those fear for the security of their jobs;
those who do not know where the next meal will come from to feed their children.

To everyone who is anxious,
Loving God, bring your peace.

Let us remember people everywhere who live in fear:

those who are afraid for their physical safety because they live in a war zone;
those who have experienced threatening behaviour as they go about their normal business;
those who live with domestic violence.

To everyone who is afraid,
Loving God, bring your peace.

Let us remember people everywhere who are in despair:

those who suffer from depression and cannot see the light
even when they have caring families and friends;
those who struggle to find work, applying for job after job without success;
those who no longer have any hope for the future.

To everyone who is in despair,
Loving God, bring your peace.

Let us remember people everywhere have no sense of self-worth:

those who have no sense that they have a purpose in their life,
that others care for them or they have a contribution to make to society;
those who do not know that they are precious to you.

To everyone who feels worthless,
Loving God, bring your peace.

Let us remember people everywhere who are angry:

those who see injustice and do not know how to help put it right;
those who have been hurt, but whose feelings have not been heard
and whose anger is turning to bitterness and hatred;
those who feel angry because of the way others are treated,
but do not know how to express their anger constructively.

To everyone who feels angry or carries a sense of injustice,
Loving God, bring your peace.

Let us remember people everywhere who are sad or lonely:

those who grieve for someone who has died;
those who mourn a broken relationship or loss of contact with family or friends;
those who have no chance to speak to anyone from one day to the next;
those who feel lonely in a crowd.

To everyone who feels sad or lonely,
Loving God, bring your peace.

Let us pause for a moment and notice how we feel ourselves.
In our separate homes, may we feel a connection with one another,
through our shared connection with you.

Calm troubled minds and hearts.
Share our joys, our sorrows and our anxieties.
Give us peace, hope and confidence to face the coming days.

We ask all these prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

Amen

Rosemary Kearsey