Category: Prayer items

Sunday (17 October), Christians across the country – and further afield – will continue to join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.

As with previous weeks during lockdown, 15 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer.

Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.

“We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered,” Lord Wallace said.

“So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.

“In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.

“Let us not forget that behind each death there will be grieving family and friends; behind each hospitalisation there will be a suffering patient, an anxious family and a caring and skilled medical team.

“And behind each vaccination, let us recognise, with thanks, the skill of the scientists’ research and those who make distribution and vaccination possible. Let us remember, too, those in countries who still wait anxiously for vaccines to arrive. May our leaders respond imaginatively and generously to that challenge.

“A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do.”

This week’s letter accompanying the prayer, which is also available in Gaelic (a copy of which will be available to read here soon), states:

“The faith we share affirms that it was ‘for us’ that Jesus Christ ‘became truly human’. So, in faith, when we turn to God and pray through Jesus Christ, we do so knowing that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the life we live.

“The life we live today is shaped by particular circumstances that weigh upon us collectively and personally. In the midst of life, we find opportunity and challenge, and we seek to discern the hand of God throughout it all. In the midst of life, we recall that Jesus has shared in our flesh and participated in the life of the world.

“The Letter to the Hebrews records: ‘In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears’. (Hebrews 5: 7) In so recording, the Letter affirms that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the depths of human experience.

“There is no place in our experience at which God cannot meet us. As we cry out to God, the One who hears us is the One who has heard the cries of Jesus Christ.”

We pray:

God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who prays for us
And who has shared in the life of the world.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
From the depths of our experience
And in the midst of the challenges of our day.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who prayed to You with cries and tears
And hear us when we do so also.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
As we share in the life of the world
And in the depths of its suffering.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who for us and for our salvation
Has become truly human and one with us.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

This Sunday (10 October), Christians across the country – and further afield – will continue to join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.

As with previous weeks during lockdown, 15 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer.

Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.

“We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered,” Lord Wallace said.

“So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.

“In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.

“Let us not forget that behind each death there will be grieving family and friends; behind each hospitalisation there will be a suffering patient, an anxious family and a caring and skilled medical team.

“And behind each vaccination, let us recognise, with thanks, the skill of the scientists’ research and those who make distribution and vaccination possible. Let us remember, too, those in countries who still wait anxiously for vaccines to arrive. May our leaders respond imaginatively and generously to that challenge.

“A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do.”

This week’s letter accompanying the prayer, which is also available in Gaelic, states:

“Where do we find grace to help us in our time of need?

“The Letter to the Hebrews does not quite frame the question in that way. However, the Letter answers the question and points us to ‘Jesus, the Son of God’ as the One who acts on our behalf and who will bring us into the gracious presence of God.

“Our time of need is now, and the needs of the world are plenty. In such a time as this, we turn to the great high priest who has faced and endured all that we face and endure. We do so knowing that the One who has endured all will enable us to ‘approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’.

“In the words of the hymn writer:

‘Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea,
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.'”

We pray:

Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For we are those who struggle
And know our weaknesses all too well.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For we know the struggles of the world
And the pain that so many bear.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For You know us and You love us
And You reach out to us in the place where we are.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For You call us to love our neighbour
And to bear one another’s burdens on the way.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
Have mercy on us
And grant to us grace in time of need;
For we make bold to approach the throne of grace
And do so in the assurance that You will hear our cry.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

This Sunday (3 October), Christians across the country – and further afield – will continue to join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.

As with previous weeks during lockdown, 15 Christian churches and organisations across the country, including the Church of Scotland, have co-signed the letter calling for prayer.

Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.

“We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered,” Lord Wallace said.

“So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.

“In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.

“Let us not forget that behind each death there will be grieving family and friends; behind each hospitalisation there will be a suffering patient, an anxious family and a caring and skilled medical team.

“And behind each vaccination, let us recognise, with thanks, the skill of the scientists’ research and those who make distribution and vaccination possible. Let us remember, too, those in countries who still wait anxiously for vaccines to arrive. May our leaders respond imaginatively and generously to that challenge.

“A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do.”

This week’s letter accompanying the prayer, which is also available in Gaelic, states:

“What do we see? As we survey the day-to-day progress of life: What do we see? What we might prefer to see is a world that is coherent and ordered, with everything in its place and a place for everything.

“Equally, we might prefer to see a world subject to a guiding hand leading us on to a place of certainty. Whatever we might prefer to see, we may be certain that it is not yet the world as we see it today.

“The Letter to the Hebrews takes up the words of the Psalmist and pictures the ‘son of man’ as the One who has all things subject to Him. Indeed, the Letter affirms that: ‘God left nothing that is not subject to Him.’ Immediately thereafter, it states: ‘Yet at present we do not see everything subject to Him.’

“There is a vision of the world as it shall be and a realisation that the world in which we live is not yet aligned to that vision. What we see is the world as it is and not yet the world as it shall be in the providence of God.

“The place we inhabit is the point of tension between the world we see and the world as God intends it to be. In this place, and by the grace of God, ‘we see Jesus…now crowned with glory and honour because He suffered death’ and we resolve to live out our faith as we follow the One who is the author and pioneer of our salvation. (Hebrews 2: 5-12/Psalm 8: 4-6)”

We pray:

Living God,
You give life to the world
And to all Creation,
And we seek Your guiding hand
In the days in which we live.
Grant that we might discern Your guidance
And live faithfully in accordance with Your will.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
You give life to the world
And to all Creation,
And Your care for Creation
Overflows to all the earth.
Grant to us the resolve to care for Creation
In the place we inhabit and in the time You have given to us.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
You give life to the world
And to all Creation,
And You create us to reflect
The image of God.
Grant to us that we may see in our neighbour
A reflection of Your image and so value the lives of all.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

Living God,
You give life to the world
And to all Creation,
And we see the world as it is
And know that it is not yet the world as You will it to be.
Grant to us faith that we might see Jesus and follow the One
Who is the author and pioneer of our salvation.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

This Sunday (26 September), Christians across the country – and further afield – will join together in prayer and reflection at 7pm in response to the pandemic.

Scottish Christians have been continuing to answer the call to pray at the same time each week, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Lord Wallace, is taking part alongside them.

“We should always be mindful for the wisdom handed down to us from past generations; much of it learned the hard way, from mistakes made and consequences suffered,” Lord Wallace said.

“So, too, we are grateful for the richness that comes to us from living alongside people of other traditions. In our day and generation we must surely allow our minds and hearts to be open so that we can risk getting to know them and learning from them.

“In this pandemic, our responsibility is to come together and offer our prayers for all the many diverse expressions of our Christian faith that enrich life, as we have done for many months now.

“Let us not forget that behind each death there will be grieving family and friends; behind each hospitalisation there will be a suffering patient, an anxious family and a caring and skilled medical team.

“And behind each vaccination, let us recognise, with thanks, the skill of the scientists’ research and those who make distribution and vaccination possible. Let us remember, too, those in countries who still wait anxiously for vaccines to arrive. May our leaders respond imaginatively and generously to that challenge.

“A pattern has been set for us, lived out in Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit. May we follow in His way, and be guided by the one over-riding rule of love in all that we say and do.”

This week’s letter accompanying the prayer, which you can find here in Gaelic, states:

‘May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.’ (Psalm 19: 14)

The Psalmist turns to God, as we ourselves do, in search of the One who will accept us as we are and who will be our strength in hard times. The times in which we live will feel to many of us like hard times. In these times, the Psalm speaks to us and for us.

We are conscious that the words we offer are but frail and we sometimes fear that they will not carry to God. Likewise, we fear that our hearts are faint. In these times, the Psalmist stands where we stand and calls upon the Lord as the One who is our rock and strength, and as the One who will bring us into the living presence of God. The words are offered from open lips and an open heart and rise into the presence of God. The words are offered trusting that they will be pleasing before God. In similar fashion, we offer our words from open lips and open hearts and we trust, that in these times, they will be heard by the One who is our Rock and Redeemer.

We pray:

O Lord,
You are our Rock and our Redeemer,
Hear us as we call to you
With open lips and open hearts.
Hear us and accept us we are.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

O Lord,
You are our Rock and our Redeemer,
Hear us as we call to you
In the times in which we live.
Hear us in hard times and answer us in your time.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

O Lord,
You are our Rock and our Redeemer,
Hear us as we call to you
With the words that you have given to us.
Hear us with words hewn from the experience of life.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

O Lord,
You are our Rock and our Redeemer,
Hear us as we call to you
Though our words are often frail and our hearts sometimes faint.
Hear our words and accept the offering of our hearts.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

O Lord,
You are our Rock and our Redeemer,
Hear us as we call to you
And may the words we offer and the meditation of our hearts
Be acceptable in your sight.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.