Prayers of the people — Jo Clifford, UK

Written for Seventeenth Sunday of Pentecost, Year C

Note: There’s an invitation for all to say the line in bold.

The prompt is always “Amma”.

 

Abba

You are our mother and our father

And we try to believe you love us

Abba, Amma,

Remind us we are not alone

Abba

We don’t always seem to fit in

Maybe we’re told our gender is wrong

Or maybe we’re told our sexuality is wrong

Maybe we’re told we’re just weird

And we end up feeling isolated and alone

Abba

Remind us that you made our world

Full of the outlandish and the strange

And the different and the downright odd

And all that diversity is so much part of the world’s beauty,

As we are too.

Abba

Remind us we are not the only ones.

Amma

Remind us we are not alone.

Abba

So often we get separated from the ones we love

Sometimes they have to move somewhere else, a long long way away

Sometimes they are close to us in body

But because we’re cross with them

And they are cross with us

We are separated in anger.

Sometimes they die and leave us all alone

Forlorn in this world and crying

Abba

Remind us this love lives on inside us now and always will.

Amma

Remind us we are not alone.

Abba

The web of life seems to be so damaged

So broken by human folly, by hatred and by greed,

We don’t know who to turn to or what to do.

We feel so helpless.

But we keep trying, somehow,

We keep trying to build a better world.

And sometimes it feels like we’re the only one

That no-one supports us and nobody helps us

And we have to do it all ourselves.

Abba

Remind us there are millions of us everywhere trying to make peace and justice

Abba

Remind us you are always with us

Here in the throbbing heart of life.

Amma

Remind us we are not alone.

Abba

This world teaches us we really are alone

Frightened individuals in a hostile world

All engaged in a fierce ruthless struggle to better ourselves.

Abba

When you walked this earth

You told us we must try to love each other and love God.

And that was only yesterday

Or maybe today

And we didn’t really notice

And then immediately forgot.

Abba

Our memories are so short.

You are our mother and our father too

Remind us that the more we love each other

The more we love you

And the more we love you

The more we love each other.

Abba

Let’s keep trying to remember

Abba

Don’t let us ever forget

Amma

Remind us we are not alone.

Amen

Click here to share this post: