Prayers of the People: Proper 17 B

Here’s a prayer of intercession from Rev. Richard Fairchild’s Kir-shalom website.

Prayers of the People
(inspired by Deuteronomy 4:1-8; Mark 7:1-8,14-23, John 10:10)

Lord God, Jesus said that he came to that we might life and have it abundantly.  We praise you and we thank you for his purpose in coming and we pray to you that we might indeed experience the fullness of the life that he has promised.  Take from us, O Lord, all those things that get in the way of our relationship with you—our pride and self-certainty, our doubt and our fear, and all those things that come from our human nature that blind us to the wonders of your presence and the glory of what you are doing in our midst.....  Lord, hear our prayer....

Lord, you know very well how our traditions and our understandings can become instruments of judgment rather than tools of your grace.  We pray today O God for all those who have been hurt by our [thoughtless] insistence that our particular way is the only right way.  Touch the hearts of those who have turned away from you because we have caused your light within us to grow dim and brighten, we pray, our souls.....  Lord, hear our prayer....

Lord, we thank you for the refreshing wind of your Spirit—for how you breathe into us new life and new hope and lead us to new understandings.  In you we find wholeness for both body and soul.  We pray now, O God, that this wholeness may not only not only grow within us—but that it might enter into and transform the lives of those whom we name before you at this time.  We lift them up, O Lord, and also we lift up those situations and those persons, in thanksgiving, and with prayers of intercession, that you have placed upon our hearts this day...

We pray all these things, O God, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord and our Saviour, our brother and our friend.  Amen.

~ posted on Rev. Richard Fairchild’s Kir-shalom website. http://www.rockies.net/