Originally written for the fifth Sunday of Lent – Year A (2 April 2017)

Eternal One,

we thank you for this opportunity to worship together.

Please help everyone here today, to learn something new about you…

We pray for peace throughout the world

and for everyone’s heart to be filled with love,

so that we can all live together in harmony,

whatever our differences are.

We pray especially for refugees and asylum seekers everywhere,

that they will be welcomed into their new communities and not treated cruelly.

We continue to pray for the time when everyone will have food,

water, shelter, medical supplies

and the chance to sleep without fear of tomorrow…

God of Love……. Hear our prayer.

You created our world and gave us life…

we are sorry for destroying your creation…

We have chopped down trees, polluted the air,

poisoned the rivers and seas

and destroyed the places where animals live…

Help us to change our ways

so that we can look after the world

and make it the way that you want it to be…

God of Love……. Hear our prayer.

We pray for all those who are sick in body, mind or spirit.

Especially we pray for:  [names of the sick]

Please give them peace in their pain,

strength in their weakness and comfort in their sadness…

God of Love……. Hear our prayer.

Everlasting God, you have given us new life

and, as we go back out into the world now,

we pray that our lives will reflect your love to all those we meet …

Amen.

Caren worships at All Saints Church of England, Harnham, Salisbury, UK