Prayers, 24 August 2025
Prayers inspired by original prayers Jer 1:4-10, Ps 71:1-6, Heb 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17.
[We gather]
A preparation
E te Atua, kaihanga
Kīanō mātou i hanga e koe
i roto i te kōpū,
kua mohio mātou ki a koe
God our creator
Before you formed us in the womb
You knew us.
E te Atua aroha
Titiro atawhai mai
ki a rātou kua moe kei roto i a Koe
ki a mātou te hunga ora tonu
Loving God
Look kindly then, upon our people,
who now rest again in You
and we who remain.
Bidding and Response:
Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go.
[We pray for the Church]
E tō mātou Matua, our Father, our Parent,
You called forth Jeremiah -
Young and unsure.
But you anointed him
to do your will:
“to uproot and tear down,
to destroy and overthrow,
to build and to plant”
Grant us your Church,
The wisdom to know
When to tear down what does not serve You
And how best to build and to plant what does.
Bless us as Your body in this world
Bless every one of its parts,
That you have knitted together.
Because You know us -
And still, you love us.
Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go.
[We pray for the world]
Karaiti Ihu, Christ Jesus
You freed the woman,
From 18 years of bondage in pain;
You free us every day,
From that which binds us.
We pray for our world
Where people - and so much of Creation - remain bound
In servitude to cruelty, greed and injustice,
Bound even unto death.
Grant that those
With the power to break those chains,
use that power to Your glory –
In a war-hungry government,
in a prison, in a violent home,
In a factory, in a boarding house,
in a tiny nation overrun by ocean,
Help them and us to break those chains,
And to be bound in Your love instead.
Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go.
[We pray for our communities and for our own needs.]
E te Wairua Tapu, Sacred Spirit
Move through us
Guide us
Reveal to us what has always been true;
You achieve impossible things in our lives,
If we could but see them.
Move through our communities
Move through the homes and hearts of people we love
And of people we dislike, or even hate.
Move through our hospitals
Our jail cells
Our schools, our workplaces,
And our homes.
We lift to you now our own needs,
Help us, Holy Spirit.
Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go.
