Here’s a prayer of approach and confession from the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.
Prayer of Approach and Confession
Lord Jesus,
we thank you for your invitation to gather round your holy table.
When we look at the bread and the wine
we are reminded of your own body and blood:
Your body that was broken for us and your blood that was shed.
But we know that your death was not the end.
We celebrate the fact that your are no longer nailed to a cross
but present with us now by Your Holy Spirit.
We are glad that you invite us to share in a special banquet
of the richest food and the finest wine—
a celebration banquet that reveals your heavenly Kingdom.
Help us to respond to your invitation and not to despise it.
Help us to put away our old clothes of sin
and wear the wedding clothes of your Kingdom.
Today we ask for your forgiveness
for living without your presence in our lives:
for relying on our own achievements;.
for believing that we are the architects of our own destiny;
for living as though you have no place in our modern world.
Forgive us, restore us,
renew us and equip us
to do Your will on earth,
until the dawning of your heavenly Kingdom.
Help us to find the riches of your grace,
as we study your word, and meet with you in prayer.
This we ask, as we further pray in the words
which you taught to your disciples saying,
Our Father….:
— from Starters for Sunday, on the Church of Scotland’s website.
For more worship resources related to this text, or other texts for October 9, 2011 (the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost), click on Proper 23A in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page.
For other resources related to confession, click on Confession or words of assurance in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page, or see this Confession & Assurance index. For other prayers and prayer resources on this blog, see this Prayer index.
