Opening Prayer
We taste Thee, O Thou living bread, and long to feast upon Thee still; we drink of Thee, the fountainhead and thirst our souls from Thee to fill. -Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) (Silent reflection) Prayer of the Bible O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah But you, O Lord, are a a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! -Psalm 3:1-7 (Free expression of praise and thanksgiving to God) Confession of Sin I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.’ -Luke 15:18 (Time of silence for confession of sin) The Words of Jesus Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. -Matthew 5:33-37 (Think deeply on these life-giving words of Jesus) Pray for ourselves and others Pray to God the Father, through the power of our Master Jesus, through the love of the Spirit. -Romans 15:30 (Time to bring before God our own needs and the needs of others) Closing Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, grant that as your body, we might all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, Christ Jesus our Lord. -Ephesians 4:13-15 |