Second Sunday of Easter - Year C

Second Sunday of Easter Year C
The Act of Prayer
Praying through the lectionary
ACTS 5:27–32;
PSALM 118:14–29;
REVELATION 1: 4-8
JOHN 20:19–31

Opening prayer

Into your presence we come,
God of grace and peace,
who was, and is,
and ever shall be
the eternal one.
In fellowship we come,
bound together in the love
that died and rose again,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Adoration

This world would silence your name but we will not be quiet.
This world would deny your name but we will speak it out.

God of all beginnings, who breathed and this world lived, spoke and this world moved, loved and brought us to a garden, a gift of grace providing for our needs.

God of our salvation, who chose a people for his own, spoke the word of life, poured out pure love, and in a garden showed the world what love could do.

This world would silence your name but we will not be quiet.
This world would deny your name but we will speak it out.

Confession

You call us to be your voices in this world and we stay silent.
You call us to be your hands in this world and we keep them hidden.

You call us to be your feet in this world and we go our own way.

When we meet someone looking for the way and say nothing, forgive us.
When we meet someone who needs your touch and do nothing, forgive us.
When we are called to take up your cross and carry nothing, forgive us.

Breathe life into these dry bones; bring freedom to these lives, that we might declare with heart and soul and voice that you are our Lord and our God.

Thanksgiving

For peace beyond understanding—
shalom—
your desire for all that is good and fruitful, all that makes us whole, we thank you.

For grace we do not deserve,
freedom,
forgiveness for all that is wrong in our lives that keeps us from you, we thank you.

For life poured out on a cross—
salvation—
that divine mystery of love by which all might know you as Abba, Father, we thank you.

Taken from The Act of Prayer by John Birch