Sunday Prayers

Due to my mother recovering from a knee replacement, the following prayers are focused on healing.

Dear God, we love you and know of your love for us. Your power is supreme. Your wonder is beyond description. Your healing is complete. Your will is our desire. Today we pray for your healing. You know it is our desire that those experiencing pain would be healed, would be made strong again, would be up and around again, full of life. Amen (Christian Minister’s Manual, 107)

God our healer, keep us aware of your presence, support us with your power, comfort us with your protection, give us strength and establish us in your peace. Amen (A New Zealand Prayerbook, 760)

Jesus, you are the great physician and you also experienced pain and suffering during your earthly ministry. Your pain became our salvation. We ask that you comfort and heal those who are experiencing pain. Help them to enter your restful embrace, so that in the midst of their pain, they would experience your presence and know that they are not alone. Amen (My prayer)

Sunday Prayers

Sunday Prayers for Mental Illness Awareness Week and the National Day of Prayer for Mental Health during the first full week in October of each year. 

Almighty God, whose Son took upon himself the afflictions of your people: Regard with your tender compassion those suffering from anxiety, depression, or mental illness; bear their sorrows and their cares; supply all their needs; help them to put their whole trust and confidence in you; and restore them to strength of mind and cheerfulness of spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (ACNA Book of Common Prayer, 2019)

Lord, help us remember that no matter what things look like today, there is always a new dawn, a new morning, a new creation on the horizon. Your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, Lord. Amen (Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals)

God, the human brain is wondrous yet often frail and susceptible to various conditions. No matter the condition of our brains and the mental trials we may experience, help us to always turn our faces towards you, to always fix our eyes upon you, to always receive your loving and comforting embrace. We long for “that day” when all will be made new, and our minds will be completely transformed to that of the mind of Christ. Lord, move us with your love and comfort to help and to support others who experience mental health conditions. Help us to see and to listen to those who often experience the dark night of the soul, who experience the depths of loneliness due to anxiety, depression and mental illness. May they know that they are never alone. Amen (My Prayer)

Sunday Prayers

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things to your beloved Son, whom you anointed priest forever and king of all creation: Grant that all the people of the earth, now divided by the power of sin, may be united under the glorious and gentle rule of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (1978 Lutheran Book of Worship, pg. 30)

Keep your Church alert, Holy Spirit, ready to hear when you are calling, and when you challenge us. Keep us hopeful, Holy Spirit, knowing that Christ will come again. Rouse our spirits, Lord Jesus, that whenever you come to the door and knock you may find us awake, ready to admit and serve you. Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people that, richly bearing the fruit of good works, they may by you be richly rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (1989 A New Zealand Prayer Book, pg. 659)

Jesus is Lord, Christ is King! His kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus, we look to you as the king of the already not-yet in full kingdom of God. We confess that often we fail at living out your kingdom ethics and that often we are complacent in furthering your kingdom mission. Help us yield our lives to your rule and reign while loving you with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength. Fill our lives with your love that we may love others while being envoys of light and life. Amen. (My prayer)

Sunday Prayers

Help my fear, Lord, and my unbelief. Help me to learn your goodness by heart. Help me, Lord, in the midst of my doubts and worries, to begin to see what you see when you look at my world. Imprint that vision somewhere deep within where it can stay, and speak and live. Amen (Help, me Lord from Celtic Daily Prayer: Book Two, 1041)

Lord Jesus, you taught us to pray. Now help us pray for our daily bread while laboring with love for those who hunger. Show us how to hallow your name while striving for justice in our relationships and in society. May our whole lives become a prayer, ever to your glory. Amen (Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, 441)

God, I walk with you, yielding my life to your will. Deliver us from the things that distract us from you. Free us from the chaos that so easily enters this world. Heal our pain, sadness and disappointment. Help us set our gaze upon you and to receive your grace, mercy and peace. May we reflect your goodness in the world and live as people of light, life and love. Amen (My Prayer)

Sunday Prayers

Jesus, when you rode into Jerusalem, the people waved palms with shouts of acclamation. Grant that when the shouting dies, we may still walk beside you even to a cross. Amen (A New Zealand Prayer Book, Collect for Palm Sunday)

Let us rejoice today and be glad. Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord, we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs [branches] in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Amen (Psalms 118:24b-29 NIV)

Lord Jesus Christ, blessed are you, the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. We wave before you like palm branches the words of the written charge placed above your head on the cross, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Help us to honor you, not with branches, but with loving and merciful acts of service towards one another. Jesus we lay our thoughts and desires under you, so that you may draw the whole of our being to yourself and that we would experience the whole of your being in our lives. O Lord, lest the rocks cry out in our place, we lift our whole lives in praise to you. Amen (My Prayer, inspired by Andrew of Crete, an eighth century martyr)

Sunday Prayers

Holy and everliving God, by your power we are created and by your love we are redeemed; guide and strengthen us by your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service and live this day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen. (A New Zealand Prayer Book)

Lord God, when the hungry are fed, the sick healed, the lonely made family, the outcast brought in, the sinner forgiven, the tyrant transformed, and the enemy reconciled, we know your work by the fruit it produces. May our lives bear fruit worthy of your name. Amen. (Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals)

Thank you God that we are never alone because you are always immanent. We praise you for your loving presence that gives us peace and transforms our hearts and minds. Help us to practice the ministry of loving presence to whomever we meet and to show sympathy and empathy to those experiencing trials of various kinds. Amen. (My Sunday Prayer)

Sunday Prayers

O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Sunday Morning Prayer in 2019 ACNA Book of Common Prayer)

O Lord God, you led your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide now your people of your Church, that, following our savior, we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (First Sunday in Lent in Lutheran Book of Worship)

O most holy and blessed Trinity, you have taught us that when we fast, we give up comfort and conventions to make room in our lives for experiencing more deeply your divine love and togetherness. We starve the flesh to partake of your greatness, to hunger and thirst for you in earnest prayer and to stand in solidarity with and intercede for the poor and needy throughout the world. Help us view fasting not as a burden but as a joyous practice which evermore moves us to depend on you and to become like you in and to the world. Amen. (My Sunday Prayer)

Sunday Prayers

Lord, help me keep my thoughts on the things that are above. Even if I spend time and energy buying gifts for others during this season, help me to invest above all in the gifts of your kingdom and the treasures of your love, your grace, and your mercy. (Daniel G. Groody, Daily Reflections for Advent & Christmas 2019, pg. 7)

Jesus, you are the long-awaited messiah sent to set the captives free and to bring forth your kingdom of peace. As those of old anticipated your coming, help your church to yearn for your second coming. As your messenger prepared the way before you, may we prepare our hearts to receive you and your blessed gifts. As people of light, life and love, move us to joyously proclaim your name among the nations. (My prayer)

Sunday Prayers

O Almighty God, you pour out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (2019 ACNA Book of Common Prayer)

O Lord, by your grace and mercy, help us to turn our faces towards you and away from the things that so easily entangle us and distract us. Fill our hearts with love and devotion for you and give us the faith and the desire to always lift up our supplications to you. Help us to anticipate and to experience your goodness and greatness in our lives, and may we be witnesses to your light, life and love. Amen. (My Prayer)

Sunday Prayers

We have seen the true Light. We have received the Heavenly Spirit. We have found the true Faith, in worshipping the indivisible Trinity; for he hath saved us. O Lord, Let our mouth be filled with Thy praise that we may hymn Thy glory; for Thou hast counted us worthy to partake of Thy holy mysteries; preserve us in Thy sanctification, meditating on Thy righteousness all the day long. Amen. (A Prayer Book for Orthodox Christians, The Divine Liturgy)

We praise you and thank you, O Most Holy Trinity, for the light and power that you have bestowed upon us. Graciously grant us the grace to faithfully love you with all our hearts, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our minds. Help us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices in service to you and your kingdom. Give us glimpses of you glory so that we will be sanctified and transformed more and more into the image of Christ, our loving savior and king forever and ever. Amen. (My Prayer)