Pray With Us

 

Leader: If you trust in your God & do good, then you will live in the land & be secure.

All:       We trust in our God.

Leader: Commit your life to God, just trust & God will act.

All:       We trust in our God & we pray to the father & to the son, & to the Holy Spirit, amen, alleluia!

 

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 a canticle as indicated:

Side 1:  Great & wonderful are your deeds,

O God of love & glory.

Side 2: Just & true are your ways,

             O ruler of the peoples.

Side 1:  Who shall not revere your name?

For you alone are holy.

Side 2: All people shall come & worship in your presence,

            For your redeeming love has shone in all its glory.

Side 1: Praise & honour, glory & love,

Be given to the one who reigns,

Side 2:Whose way of love is sustained,

           At a cost we can barely imagine,

Side 1:A way that wins through in the end,

Through the worst of evil, of pain & of death.

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.  

       

We will listen to, or join in with, a musical version of psalm 26. Fire of Love Tr 8.  The Lord is my Light.

 

 

The Lord is my light, my hope, my salvation;

In him I trust. (repeat).

There is one thing I ask of the Lord, for this I long.

To live in His house all the days of my life.

To savour the sweetness of the Lord.

To behold His temple, for this I long.

The Lord is my light, my hope, my salvation;

In him I trust. (repeat).

 

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.

 

Please sing the Magnificat after the cantors, as indicated.

Cantor:  Come, bride of Christ,

And receive the crown that the Lord has prepared for you.

Side 1:   My being proclaims your greatness,

And my spirit finds joy in you, God my Saviour,

Side 2:  For you have looked upon me, your servant, in my lowliness;

              All ages to come shall call me blessed.

Side 1:   God, you who are mighty, have done great things for me.

Holy is your name.

Side 2:  Your mercy is from age to age

              Towards those who fear you.

Side 1:   You have shown might with your arm

And confused the proud in their inmost thoughts.

Side 2:  You have deposed the mighty from their thrones

              And raised the lowly to high places.

Side 1:   The hungry you have given every good thing,

While the rich you have sent away empty.

Side 2:  You have upheld Israel, your servant,

              Ever mindful of your mercy-

Side 1:   Even as you promised our ancestors;

Promised Abraham, Sarah & their descendants for ever.

All:        Give praise to the Father Almighty,

To his Son Jesus Christ our Lord;

              To the Spirit who dwells in our hearts,

Both now and for ever, Amen.

All:        Come, bride of Christ,

              And receive the crown that the Lord has prepared for you.

 

Intercessions:

Reader: Through Christ, we are the children of God, and through Christ we see what we are to become when we come to God. We pause to reflect………… pause…… we pray.

 

Sung response:  Cantors: Lord, in your mercy,

All:       Hear our prayer.

Reader: Guide our leaders and governments – give them your wisdom and integrity……….pause……….we pray,

Sung response: as above.

Reader: Lord, you are the source of our freedom – bring those people imprisoned in any way to the freedom of the children of God. ……… pause…….…..we pray,

Sung response: as above.

Reader: Give courage and strength to young people; help them to make wise choices for their future. ………pause…..we pray,

All:        Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Sung response: as above.

Reader: We pray for our bishop & our diocese.  May we all remain hopeful that the spirit will guide us all through this period of transition, & may the bishop be given the particular gifts that he needs as leader ………pause…..we pray,

Sung response: as above.

Reader:     We pray for people who have died today – for those who will die tonight – we also pray 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:  Lord God, may we, like St Scholastica, serve you with

a pure love; and then our joy will be full as we receive

joy and blessings from your hand. Through Christ our

Lord.

All:  Amen.

Leader:     May Christ surround us with love.

All: Amen.

Leader:     May Christ transform us in love.

All: Amen.

Leader:     May Christ send us forth to proclaim God’s love.

All: Amen.

Leader:     May almighty God bless us – the Father Son and Holy Spirit,

All: Amen.