Download these prayers as a pdf here.
Our journey this week will bring us to places of deep prayer, including shrines to Jesus’ mother, Mary, and the home of Julian of Norwich.
As you walk this week, allow yourself to attend to the deep suffering of the world. Open your eyes to signs of that pain around you and, in solidarity with all who are hurting, turn to God in hope and faith. Notice, too, the strength and the power revealed in suffering and in all who seek to address it. Talk to God about what you see and ask for guidance as you seek to serve Christ in all persons.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
God of faithful surprises, throughout the ages you have made known your love and power in unexpected ways and places: May we daily perceive the joy and wonder of your abiding presence and offer our lives to you in gratitude. Amen.
Psalm 42
As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God;
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while all day long they say to me, “Where now is your God?”
I pour out my soul when I think on these things:
how I went with the multitude and led them into the house of God,
with the voice of praise and thanksgiving,
among those who keep holy-day.
Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me?
Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to the Holy One
who is the help of my countenance and my God.
My soul is heavy within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
and from the peak of Mizar among the heights of Hermon.
One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts;
all your rapids and floods have gone over me.
The Lord grants loving-kindness in the daytime;
in the night season a song of God is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
I will say to the God of my strength,
“Why have you forgotten me and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?”
While my bones are being broken, my enemies mock me to my face;
all day long they mock me and say to me, “Where now is your God?”
Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me?
Put your trust in God; for I will yet give thanks to the Holy One
who is the help of my countenance and my God.
silence
Creating God, you looked at everything you made and called it good.
Give me eyes to see the world as you see it – with delight and love and compassion.
offers your thanksgivings and intercessions.
I pray in the name of Jesus, with the words he gave us:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.