Hear Our Prayer. Raymond Chapman

the Kingdom of Heaven … Break through the doubt and uncertainty that cloud the vision, the false values that hide the truth, that all may know that salvation has come.

      Make us faithful witnesses, to bring the knowledge of Christ into our homes, our work, our meeting with others … Guide all in this community so to seek that they may truly find.

      Have mercy on the sick in body or mind, the disabled, the sorrowful. Lead them from the wilderness into the fertile land of your healing love, where they may be made whole.

      Lord Christ who raised the dead, receive into your Kingdom the souls of the departed … As they saw the signs of your power in this world, may they enter into the fullness of your glory.

      We offer our prayers through the one long expected who has come to be among us, Christ the Lord.

      FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

      Matthew 1:18–23

      As we wait for the birth of the Lord, we pray for the Church and for the world he came to save.

      Lord God, guide your Church into the way of truth and keep her free from false doctrine and all error … Give grace to her ministers, so that your purposes may be clearly known and faithfully proclaimed, to the glory of your name.

      Come to the world where the truth is so often unknown and the message of hope not understood … Teach those who hold authority over others to govern without fear and suspicion and to seek the way of peace.

      Bring into our homes the joy of those who trust in your love, and share that love with one another … Give light to families where love has turned to bitterness and jealousy. May the tender protection of Joseph and the gentleness of Mary be with them.

      Have pity on all whose sleep is troubled, who lie awake in darkness or are tormented in their dreams … In the night hours, may the sick and those who watch with them know your calming presence and the assurance of your love.

      Give rest to the departed and an awakening to heavenly joy … As you were with them in this life, so let them now be with you for ever, no longer afflicted by the doubts and fears that they once knew.

      We offer our prayers in the name of Jesus our Emmanuel, God with us.

      CHRISTMAS DAY

      Luke 2:1–20 or John 1:1–14

      Rejoicing in the precious gift of the Son, let us pray to the Lord.

      Grant to the Church, illumined by the eternal light, the grace to shine as the servant of Incarnate God … May the simple faith of the shepherds, the adoration of the angels, and the love of the Holy Family be the ground of our worship and witness now and at all times.

      Son of God, taking our human nature so that all broken humanity might be made new, look with mercy on a world which has not heeded the angelic message of peace … Bring to the nations knowledge of the love which has been from the beginning and which no sin can extinguish or folly destroy.

      May the love that shone from the blessed manger bed be ours today … In every heart, every home, every place where some must work, may the grace and truth of God dwell with us and draw us into his holiness, and empower us to tell out the tidings of great joy.

      Light of God, come into the darkness of pain and suffering … In the new day that has dawned, may the sick find healing, the sorrowful comfort, the despairing hope and the dying assurance … Bring the wanderers and the homeless to shelter … Shield the newly born and the mothers waiting for the time of birth.

      Grant to the departed the peace that unites earth and heaven … The life that was in Christ, the life of all that was made, be theirs in the greater light of his eternal glory.

      We offer our prayers through Christ, the Word made flesh for our salvation.

      FIRST SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS

      Matthew 2:13–23

      We pray to God who has shared the pain of the world.

      May the Church, made an image of the glory of Christ, stand also as a witness to his suffering … Change our weakness into strength, our anxiety into trust that he who became helpless for love of us will be our present help and make us able to meet the needs of all who come.

      In the world where many are driven from their homes as wanderers in strange lands, where tyrants rage and destroy the innocent, may God direct the ways of those who are lost in sorrow and fear … Come close to those who abuse their power, that they may learn to love, and turn from anger to compassion.

      Give us grateful hearts for the security that we know, in our human lives and our assurance of the love of God … Grant to all in this community the mutual concern and sympathy which tell us that all grief is shared and is healed only by his presence.

      We pray for those who have lost their homes and all who at the end of the day will have no place to rest … Bring them to a place of refuge, as Mary and Joseph were led to a home for their child … Comfort those who at this time are mourning for the death of children.

      May those who died as little children find the fullness of life … May those who have died violently and unprepared find the peace that was denied them in their dying … May those who have killed come to repentance and pardon in their own deaths.

      May our prayers be acceptable to the vulnerable Christ who is our Lord.

      SECOND SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS

      John 1:1–18

      Let us pray, trusting in God who receives all who come to him for grace.

      As we have been granted the knowledge of God which comes only through the revelation of his Son, we pray that the Church may be a light to the world … Confident in truth and enabled by grace, may all her people tell with their lips and follow in their lives the new law of love.

      Give to all people knowledge of the power of God who made the world and all that is in it … Grant humility to those who exercise human power, and give them right judgement in their decisions … Be merciful to those who do not know Christ or will not receive him, and let his light break through their darkness.

      Draw us closer to our families, our friends, our colleagues, with the love that has come into the world … Make us as those who are born again, not of human will but of God, the only source of life and the giver of grace.

      Have mercy on all who are in error and guide them into the true light of Christ … Bring the fullness of life to those who have made their lives narrow by rejecting love … Comfort and heal the sick and all who suffer, and strengthen with grace those who care for them.

      Hold in eternal life the faithful departed who have witnessed to the truth of Christ in this world … May the light which led them on their way shine on them as perpetual light and make them perfect by his grace.

      We pray in the name of Christ in whom we have received grace upon grace.

      THE EPIPHANY

      Matthew 2:1–12

      Let us kneel in homage as we pray to God, the King of Kings.

      We offer our richest gifts of prayer and praise, knowing them imperfect but trusting in the holiness of Christ to make them holy … As the Wise Men were led by a star to Bethlehem, so guide your pilgrim Church to worship in holiness and bow down in adoration until the time when your purpose is accomplished.

      Give wisdom to the rulers of this world, that they may see the light of truth and follow the way of peace … Let them not be moved by fear or envy; make them ready to see you in what seems small and unimportant, so that their power is used not in pride but in service.

      As we have known the joy of Christmas and rejoiced in the gift of the Holy Child, may we now bring to him our gifts of love and reverence … Make our lives, in our families and in all our meeting with others, tokens of the treasures that in our hearts we offer to the Lord.

      Look with mercy on those whose journeys through the world are long and who can see no guiding star