Intercessions
24th March 2024
Prayers of the People for Palm Sunday 24th March 2024
Loving God, Your Son Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as a different kind of king. You call us to be different too. We pray that we may bear the fruit of your Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We ask you to take firm root in our lives, so we may lovingly serve and welcome all, with no exceptions. Help us to live together in your love and shine as lights in the darkness to reveal your glory in the world.
Lord in Your mercy
Hear our prayer
As we journey together through Holy Week, from the joyful entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, through the Last Supper Jesus had with his friends, to the anguish of the Cross, may we understand the depth of the love that sent Jesus into the world to be our Saviour.
Lord Jesus, what have you not suffered, What have you not given, for us? We can never fully understand you. But we can love you. And wonder at the depth of the darkness which you entered on the cross and the depth of the love which held you there.
Today we pray for people who feel pushed away from that love:
pushed away from a living faith in Jesus by pressure from friends and family;
pushed away by other people in churches if they do not share the same kinds of ideas, or ways, or clothes. People who are pushed out by those who want power, whose main love to be noticed, to have control.
Lord in Your mercy
Hear our prayer
We pray for your church that all those who trust in Jesus will follow his humility, to see and imitate his servant life, to welcome and not to condemn.
Lord help your churches to be like Jesus.
We pray for our leaders, both lay and Ordained and give you thanks for them and for the volunteers that give their time, their skills. their energy to honour you.
And In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray today for the Church of the Province of West Africa
We pray for world leaders, quick to stand in the limelight taking decisions which affect everyone in the world but slow at times to do the steady, less glamorous work to which they are called.
We pray for them to understand their role to serve the peoples of the world, we pray that their posturing will be replaced by practical action to make a difference, and jockeying for position be replaced by genuine efforts o feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for those who are weak.
Lord in Your mercy
Hear our prayer
Lord in days when food banks are required in our land to feed families who struggle to provide the basics for life, we ask that you will re-arrange the priorities of ourselves and of others and help us to live more like Jesus. We pray for all the people today across the world who struggle to earn a living wage, that are forced to accept the ill treatment of their employers to buy food and take care of their families. Lord Help us to help them, help us to listen to your spirit and to act unselfishly.
Lord in Your mercy
Hear our prayer
We pray for those who have recently lost those whom they have loved.
Those feeling shock, confusion, pain and sorrow especially of unexpected loss, we pray for hearts to be open to the comfort of your Spirit, shown through friendship and community.
We pray for King Charles and the Princess of Wales as they struggle with life saving treatment in the full view of the World. Give them strength Lord and humility and patience. We pray for the people on our prayer list, our friends, our family, our neighbours. You know who they are Lord and what they need. We pray too for the Carers of our world, the people who look after the sick, the bewildered, those in unbearable pain. Lord walk with them, they need your gentle guiding hand and the knowledge that they are doing your work.
Lord in Your mercy
Hear our prayer
God of Grace as we leave The Church in the Park today and go out into the world make us mindful in this very holy of weeks to constantly pray for your world and your people. We know that your name is powerful, and your power is great, and we raise before you these petitions in the name of your son, our saviour Jesus Christ.
Lord in Your mercy
Hear our prayer
Merciful Father,
accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.