Intercessions 4th March 2018 – John 2:13-22 Jesus clears the temple courts
Let us pray for the church and for the world, and let us thank God for his goodness.
1. We pray for your Church throughout the world. For all people, relationships, places, and activities that are open to your presence and guided by your spirit. We repent of all the ways we obscure you by ego, materialism, bureaucracy, pettiness. May your Church, in all its forms, be a place of love, sanctuary, prayer and peace, for ever aware of, for ever a witness to, your clarifying presence. Lord in your mercy
2. More locally we pray for our own parish and benefice. We thank you for all the applications we’ve had for our vacancy. Please guide us as we move towards interviews, and as we seek a new church warden and benefice administrator. We pray for the month of guided prayer which ends today, for our book kgroup which meets this week, for our charity of the month, Deki, and its work in some of the poorest and most remote places and for everything that is happening in our church this week. Help us clear away the things that hold us back from doing your will in this community. Lord in your mercy
3. We thank you for the miraculous gifts of your creation, of human community, of life itself. We repent our part in the thoughtless materialism that destroys the environment and re-enforces injustice. We pray for all leaders, especially those with influence over the bleakest situations in the world. May all leaders, and we ourselves, be zealous for your kingdom, that, in your name, we might overturn the tables of corruption and injustice wherever we find them. Lord in your mercy
4. We pray for all who suffer, for all whose lives have been turned upside down (or never felt the right way up to start with). In this parish we particularly remember……..
May they and all who suffer meet you in the faithful care of others, may they know your healing presence and find strength despite their afflictions, may we all be inspired to care for our neighbours near and far. Lord in your mercy
5. We pray for those who have died recently, particularly remembering …. And in the year’s mind we thank you for so many people we have loved in this community …. May they, released from the complexities of earthly life, rest with you in peace. Lord in your mercy
Lord, as we turn to you today, we acknowledge that there is plenty that needs overturning in our own lives. Help us make peace with our foolishness that we might open ourselves and be more loving. Right now, this week and always.Merciful Lord, accept these prayers for the sake of your son our saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.