Pray With Us

 

Leader:  Christ came in humility to share our lives – forgive us our pride.

All (Sung): Kyrie, kyrie, kyrie eleison.

Leader:   Christ came with good news for all people – forgive our silence.

All (Sung): Kyrie, kyrie, kyrie eleison.

Leader:     Christ came in love to a world of suffering – forgive our self-centredness.

All (Sung): Kyrie, kyrie, kyrie eleison.

Please join in John Glynn’s setting of Jeremiah 9.

(May the Lord bless you. Tr 3.)

 

 

Alone I can do nothing, with you all things are mine,

The darkness used to trouble me, but now it’s filled with light.

And with your hand enfolding mine, the terrors all depart.

Your consolation calms my soul, your words speak to my heart.

 

Refrain: I know the plans I have in mind, it is the Lord who speaks,

For peace & not disaster, for a future full of hope.

My love for you will never fail, I can’t forget my own.

Be true to me as I to you, be never more alone.

 

To find the hidden treasure, I bought a costly field,

To clear the stones, to beat the briars, took more than human might,

And with the cross you’d laid on me, tucked deep into the earth

A spring of living water came, your spirit of rebirth.

Refrain.

In spite of fearful passion, in spite of selfish pride,

You are my only hope & joy, forgive my foolish ways

You long to let me search for you, to find your hiding place.

I want no longer to be free, but held in your embrace.

Refrain.

 

We will sing the first psalm as indicated.

Cantors: Happy the one

              To whom our God imputes no guilt.

Side 1:    Happy is the one whose fault is taken away,

              Whose sin is covered.

Side 2:  Happy the one to whom God imputes no guilt,

          In whose spirit there is no guile.

Side 1:   Then I acknowledged my sin to you,

              My guilt I covered not.

Side 2:  I said, ‘I confess my faults to my God,

          And God took away the guilt of my sin.

Side 1:    Be glad in God & rejoice, you just,

               Exult all you upright of heart.

All:  Glory be to the Father & to the Son,

      And to the Holy Spirit,

      As it was in the beginning, is now, & ever shall be,

      World without end, amen.

All:          Happy the one

              To whom our God imputes no guilt.

We will have a musical version of psalm 29 (30) – please join in.

(S the Ps 2 .CD1 Tr 11)

 

 

(Refrain) I will praise Lord, you have rescued me, I will

praise you, Lord, for your mercy; I will praise Lord, you have rescued me, I will praise you, Lord.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me & have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead, restored to life from those who sink into the grave.  (Refrain)

Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him, give thanks to

his holy name.  His anger lasts a moment,

his favour through life.  At night there are fears, but joy comes with dawn.(Refrain)

The Lord listened & had pity, the Lord came to my help.

For me you have changed my mourning into dancing.

O Lord, my God, I will thank you for ever. (Refrain)

 

Reading:    Daniel O’Leary from ‘The Heavenly Habit’.

Too often we unwisely prejudge events & people at their face

value.  Life becomes more interesting to us & we become more

interesting to other people when we search below the negative

superficialities of each day, learning something from

everything & acquiring more curious & creative minds.

Developing ‘the Heavenly Habit’ of glimpsing the gold in the

lead of our shadows brings the most significant transformation

– personal & universal.  There is a crack in every darkness –

that’s how the light gets in & out.  And you need the darkness

to discover the light.  It is called the paradox of life.  We are

all living in it.  And in there sometimes is what we call happiness.

Pause for reflection.

Please stand to sing the Magnificat (Scottish Folk Melody) after saying the antiphon together.

All:  Jesus loved Martha & Mary her sister & Lazarus, her brother.

 

My soul is filled with joy as I sing to God my saviour;

He has looked upon his servant, he has visited his people.

Refrain And holy is his name.

 

I am lowly as a child but I know from this day forward

that my name will be remembered for all will call me blessed. Refrain.

I proclaim the power of God; he does marvels for his servants;

Though he scatters the proud-hearted & destroys the might of princes. Refrain.

To the hungry he gives food, sends the rich away empty.

In his mercy he is mindful of the people he has chosen.

Refrain

In his love he now fulfils what he promised to our fathers;

I will praise the Lord, my saviour, everlasting is his mercy.

Full Refrain: And holy is his name, through all generations,

               everlasting is his mercy to the people he has

               chosen, & holy is his name.

Intercessions:

Reader:        Lord, help us to grow in our understanding & practise of hospitality…..(pause)……… we pray,

All:          Give us some of your generosity.

Reader:        Jesus valued friendship – let us thank God for our friends & ask to be faithful to them …..(pause)……… we pray,

All:          May your spirit of friendship grow in us.

Reader:        We remember people whose task it is to serve others: may they be respected as of equal value with those whom they serve…..(pause)……… we pray,

All:          Be with them in your love.

Reader:        Let us pray for anyone we know with the name of Martha …… …..(mention anyone).

All:          We ask you to make your presence strong in them.

Reader:        We pray for people who have died today – for those who will die tonight – and for those whose anniversaries occur tomorrow, remembering especially:

Pause for people to add silently or aloud any further intentions.

Leader begins the Our Father.

Leader:        Almighty ever-living God, your son graciously came as a guest to the home of St Martha.  By her prayers give us grace to serve Christ faithfully in our sisters & brothers,  & bring us to your home in heaven. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

All:        Amen.

All:  The blessing of the Father be upon us, that good may

      come to us; the blessing of Christ be upon us, that

      good may be done to us; the blessing of the Holy

      Spirit be ours, that good may be the course of our

      lives, each day of our arising, each night of our lying

      down, for evermore. Amen.

Leader:     Let us go in the peace of Christ to love & serve the Lord.

All:        Thanks be to God.