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Prayer
The Prayer Chain
The Church witnesses to the power
of prayer by having a prayer chain involving some thirty people. Prayers are
quickly passed from person to person and only details that the originator wishes
to be made known are communicated.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who
art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
A
Prayer, based on one of Mother Teresa's
Let
us all become a true and faithful branch on the vine of God
by accepting Him in our lives as it pleases Him to come:
as
the Truth - to be told;
as the Life - to be lived;
as the Light - to be shined;
as the Love - to be shared;
as the Way - to be walked;
as the Joy - to be given;
as the Peace - to be spread;
as the Sacrifice - to be offered,
in
our families, in our neighbourhoods, and throughout the world
Thoughts
for Lent – An Easter Hymn.
If in that
Syrian garden, ages slain,
You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain,
Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright
Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night
The hate you died to quench and could but fan,
Sleep well and see no morning, son of man.
But, if the grace rent and the stone rolled by,
At the right hand of majesty on high
You sit, and sitting so remember yet
Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat,
Your cross and passion and the life you gave,
Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.
A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
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There's
a wideness in God's mercy
Like a wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice
Which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth's sorrows
Are more felt than up in heav'n;
There is no place where earth's failings
Have such kindly judgement giv'n.
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all gladness
In the joy of Christ Our Lord.
Frederick William Faber (1814-63) |
Alleluia!
Allleluia!
Sing all earth, the news proclaim;
Chirst all glorious is victorious,
Alleluia! praise his name!
He is risen, He is risen!
Sing all earth, the news proclaim!
He is risen! praise His name.
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Feelings come and feelings go
And
feelings are deceiving
My warrant is the word of God
None else is worth believing
Martin
Luther
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A
Hymn On Not Giving Up
Planting Trees and Sowing
Seeds by Fred Kaan
(Tune: Stuttgart)
Were the world to end
tomorrow,
would we plant a tree today?
Would we till the soil of loving,
Knell to work and rise to play?
Dare we try to give an answer,
reaching out in fragile hope:
touching lives with words of Easter
break a loaf and share a cup?
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Born into the brittle morning
of that final earthy day,
we would be intent on seeing
Christ in others on our way.
Pray that at the end of living,
of philosophies and creeds,
God will find his people busy
planting trees and sowing seeds.
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The Irish
Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rain fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again
May God keep you in the hollow of His hand.
A favourite prayer of the late
Cardinal Basil Hulme, Archbishop of Westminster
Since
death must be my ending
In that dread hour of need,
My friendless cause befriending,
Lord, to my rescue speed;
Theyself, dear Jesus, trace me
That passage to the grave,
And from Thy cross embrace me
With arms outstretched to save.
From
the Hymn "O sacred head ill used"
translated by Ronald Knox (1888 to 1957)
For
Mothering Sunday - gone but not forgotten
Alfred
Williams, the Wiltshire workman who was a scholar as well as poet, died in 1930
aged 52, leaving many memorable prose and verse.
These lines were written after his mother's death.
Mother
Breathes
a sound above all others,
Sweetest in the world to me;
'Tis the sacred name of mother,
Lisped in earliest infancy.
Ah! I know not all the sorrow
For my sake she meekly bore,
But I know with every morrow
In her heart she loved me more.
Oft with tears and oft with kisses
She has rocked me into rest,
Mingling with her soft caresses
All the passion of her breast.
Still I see her, pure and holy
with love's crown above her head,
Moving near and stooping lowly
O'er the childish cradled bed.
Years have passed, and the time has found thee,
Eyes once bright are bright no more,
Mother! But a halo's round thee
Holier than the one of yore.
Alfred Williams
A
Favourite Prayer from Lynne:
O
Christ the Light,
Illuminate
and cleanse the dark corners of the world
Where
hang the cobwebs of apathy
and
dust of neglect;
shine
on the faces made grim
by
poverty and war;
melt
the icicles of despair
and
the frozen wastes
of
selfishness;
and
let your searching rays
enclose
the whole
in
one great radiance.
Written
by Betty Hares a Mission Partner in West Africa
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