January PRAYERS

Submitted by Linda

Happy New Year!

As we begin this New Year, we are still within the Christmas Season, so our prayers begin with an Epiphany prayer, followed by a prayer for continuing the work of Christmas.

A Prayer for Epiphany

Lord Jesus Christ,

You have told us; "seek, and you will find."

Yet that search is not always easy.

As we look for meaning in our lives,

there is so much that puzzles us.

The more we discover

The more we realise how little wehave understood.

Give us the determination of the wise men

To keep on looking,

despite all that obscures you.

Until at last we find the journey rewarded

And discover you for ourselves.

Amen

Continuing the Work of Christmas

When the carols have been stilled,

When the star-topped tree is taken down,

When family and friends are gone home,

When we are back to our schedules,

The work of Christmas begins:

To welcome the refugee,

To heal a broken planet,

To feed the hungry,

To build bridges of trust, not walls of fear,

To share our gifts,

To seek justice and peace for all people,

To bring Christ’s light to the world.

Michael Dougherty

We pray for the year ahead

And now a couple of prayers to recognise that we are in a new year.

We have many blessings to look back on,

but we can’t have any certainty about

what next year will bring.

What we do know is that, through the coming months, God will be with us and God can be relied upon for whatever we need

We know this because of Jesus.

May God make your year a happy one!

Not by shielding us from all sorrows and pain, but by strengthening us to bear it, as it comes.

Not by making our path easy,

but by making us sturdy to travel any path.

Not by taking hardships from us,

but by taking fear from our hearts.

Not by granting us unbroken sunshine

but by keeping our faces bright,

even in the shadows.

Not by making our life always pleasant,

but by showing us when people

and their causes need us most and by

making us anxious to be there to help.

God's love, peace, hope and joy to us for the year ahead.

Author Unknown

A Prayer for Love

O God of steadfast love, trusting you,

we devote our hearts to learning

and our lives to walking.

Teach us truth, that we may walk with courage.

Teach us mercy, that we may walk with humility.

Teach us forgiveness,

that we may walk with compassion.

Teach us grace, that we may walk with strength.

Teach us wonder, that we may walk with praise.

Teach us goodness, that we may walk with those in need.

O God of steadfast love,

learning from you, may we walk well.

Amen.

J. Bradley Wigger

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

From 18th to 25th January

we share in the

‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity’.

The theme for this year is ‘Do You Believe This?’

We are invited to reflect

on the story of Martha’s confession of faith

in Jesus as narrated in John 11: 17-27.

Each is called to sit with Jesus’ provocative question to Martha: “Do you believe this?”

A Prayer for Christian Unity

So we now close with a prayer for Christian unity

and a prayer for new beginnings:

God of the Universe,
Jesus prayed that as your people,
we may be one.
Help us to work better and closer
with all our fellow Christian people,
so that we can bring Jesus’ words to life.
We ask this in the power
of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

(The photo was taken at an ecumenical church service in Gran Canaria)

A Prayer for New Beginnings

Consult not your fears

but your hopes and your dreams.

Think not about your frustrations

but about your unfulfilled potential.

Concern not yourself with what you tried & failed in

but what it is still possible to do.

Now is the time to put aside

past & present setbacks and failures

and look with confidence

to the new day called tomorrow.

—Pope John XXIII