Prayers Sunday 8th February

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time/Te Rātapu Tuarima o He Wā Noa

Prayers inspired by: original prayers, Psalm 136:1–9,(10–22),23–26, Genesis 1:1–2:3, Romans 8:18–25, Matthew 6:25–34 Whaiora Te Moni ‘Rau Angiangi’.

He wehi, he weri, kia whakatata mai
He wehi, he weri, he taupua.

We draw near to you Lord;
In fear and trembling we come before you.

We acknowledge those who now pass beyond the veil of this life,
And in world of light, we lift our faces to you.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.”

[Bidding and response]

E te Atua, You are our hope.
We wait for you.

For the Church.

As we start to turn our hearts to Lent,
We pray for Your Church
Around the world.
Where there is suppression, hardship, poverty and war,
may our Church reject fear, and speak clearly of hope, and of Your light in dark places

Bless our leaders, lay and ordained, who follow Your example
Empower them and their communities;
Free Your church from fear of tomorrow, yet keep us in Your wisdom:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”

E te Atua, You are our hope.
We wait for you.

We pray for the world and for this place.

E te Ariki, help us show the world what it means to follow you-
That they who walk in the midst of trouble
may be strengthened;
That their fear be destroyed,
in the hope of the upside-down Kingdom
that is here, and not yet.

E te Wairua tapu be present with us in this whenua -
in this time of waiting for the promise
of the Treaty Covenant to be realised;
Grant us patience in our hopeful waiting,
and diligence in our building a better way
to live here.

E te Atua,
strengthen us
to love one another -
In the face of all that would drive us away from love.

E te Atua, You are our hope.
We wait for you.

We pray for our communities and for our own needs.

E te Tokotoru Tapu
Holy Trinity
Protect us in all our life-ways:
Our independent persons,, our families,
our neighbourhoods,
Our hapū, our iwi.
All those who have chosen to love and live in these islands

We lift up
Our relationships, our connectedness, our joy of one another -
We also lift up
Our loneliness, our hopelessness, our poverty of spirit.
We remember that our hands are empty but you fill them.

Hear our thanks
And our praise.
Bless us.
Keep us
May Your face shine upon us,
And grant us peace.

Ake, ake, amine.