1. Incense for a priest. We thank you for the gift of your church, for all the people in all the corners of the earth who have seen your star and feel called to follow. We all start in different places, with different stories and different gifts. We find this difference challenging, so we thank you for your promise that you hold us as one body and share your light with all. May your church grow in grace and wisdom, to make your vision, and the earthly journey towards your kingdom, real. Lord in your mercy…
2. More locally we thank you for our parish and our benefice. We pray for the candidates who will apply to be our next vicar and ask for your guidance and blessing as we move this process forwards. We pray for all the events in our parish this month: our charity of the month, Freedom from Torture, the book group, art group and time out teas as they get started for 2018, the next edition of Connections, our development of the Cotham agenda. May our church, like your stable, become a place where all sorts of can people discover you. Lord in your mercy…
3. Gold for a king. We thank you for the gift of good and wise leaders. Lord we pray for those in authority, especially for those with power over the big events of the world. We hold up to you the complexity, the conflicts, the tragedies and difficulties of the world, today particularly remembering Iran, Yemen, Palestine, Pakistan, North Korea. Their tasks seems so difficult, but we ask that all leaders might be inspired to become wise kings that seek you and serve you. Lord in your mercy….
4. They found you in a stable. A vulnerable baby, from the wrong sort of family, meanly dressed, and soon to be a refugee. Lord we thank you for the gift of your story. And we pray for all who suffer. For all who are vulnerable, disgraced, poor, displaced from their home, for all who have no home. We acknowledge and repent the human failings, including our own, that allow suffering and injustice to continue.
In this parish we particularly pray for…..We pray that the suffering may know that you are with them, and that you will lead them safely home.May we all be inspired to find new ways to bring your healing to the world. Lord in your mercy…
5. Myrrh for death. Lord we thank you for the gift of our lives. We pray for all those who have died recently…. And in the year’s mind we pray for…. May they, at the end of their journey, know the joy of seeing you. May they rest in peace. Lord in your mercy…
6. When they saw the star they were overwhelmed with joy. Lord give us the wisdom to open our hearts and share that joy, to trust the gifts you have given each of us, to see that all creation shines with your light, to know that you are humbly present in all circumstances, that everything is gift, that all is Grace. Help us live these truths so that all things lead us, and others, to you.
Merciful lord, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen
Intercessions by Alice Chapman