SPIRITUALITY - MARCH 2008
Prayers for Lenten Days. Prayers for Reconciliation. Collects for St Patrick's Day - See also Praying Through Lent.
+ God of times and seasons, you have brought us again to Lent for the study of Your Word, for the remembrance of the temptation of Your Son, and for the contemplation of His cross. The birds know their seasons; forbid that we be blind to our times. Grant us a Lenten blessing, and may no one miss this time of growth. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ Father, through our observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son's death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
+ Lord our God, you formed man from the clay of the earth and breathed into him the spirit of life, but he turned from your face and sinned. In this time of repentance we call out for your mercy. Bring us back to you and to the life your Son won for us by his death on the cross, for he lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
PRAYERS FOR RECONCILIATION
+Gracious God, your Word spoken through the Prophets became the Voice that proclaimed your justice and healing in Nazareth. Through Jesus you invite all creation into your reconciling love. As you freed his followers from their fear of the risks of discipleship, so move within us, in your love, with the strength, compassion and courage to give of ourselves in the ministry of reconciliation entrusted to us through Jesus Christ, your Son, Amen.
+Merciful God, you have searched us out and known us:
the hopes we hold and regrets that cling to us,
the hurts we absorb and ferment;
the tears we both cause and shed.
We stand before you: all that we have been and all that we are, knowing that only in you are we truly known as the ones you would have us be.
Guide us inward to face our selves and each other, within the forgiveness of your love, that we might joyfully welcome the gifts and challenges that the new creation of your salvation brings. Through Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
+Loving God, Creator of all, maker and redeemer of history,
you hold the pains and joys of our past, our present, our future;
you open us to the gifts of time
and to the possibilities of new beginnings,
You grant us the confidence to face our sin and loss with hope.
Breathe in us the grace to trust in your loving forgiveness,
that we may face our histories with courage.
Guide us by your Holy Spirit in our walk of repentance,
as we turn to embrace the new life you have given to us,
through Jesus Christ, your Son, Amen.
PATRICK, PATRON SAINT OF IRELAND -17 MARCH
This year due to the dates of Holy Week, the Eucharist for St Patrick’s Day will be celebrated at 1.00 pm on Saturday 15th March.
Patrick was born in Britain around the year 390 and was captured by Irish raiders when he was sixteen years old and taken to Ireland as a slave. After six years, he escaped and seems to have gone to the Continent. He eventually found his way back to his own family, where his previously-nominal Christian faith grew and matured. He returned to Gaul and was there trained as a priest and much influenced by the form of monasticism evolving under Martin of Tours. When he was in his early forties, he returned to Ireland as a bishop, and made his base at Armagh, which became the centre of his See. He evangelised the people of the land by walking all over the island, gently bringing men and women to a knowledge of Christ.
Collect
Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people: keep alive in us the fire of the faith he kindled and strengthen us in our pilgrimage towards the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
