Here’s a pastoral prayer for the fourth Sunday after Easter (April 29, 2012). It comes from Neil Dixon’s Companion to the Lectionary, Volume 3.
Prayer for Easter 4
Gracious God, help us to live in love and charity with others,
and, as we ask for your forgiveness, enable us to be forgiving.
Take from our lives the hidden grudges and concealed hate.
Forgive us that we have so often denied you;
that like lost sheep we have turned away from you;
that we have sung with our lips what we have not had the courage
to practice in our lives.
Forgive our sins, comfort our sorrows, calm our fears,
and take from us every proud thought.
So fill us with love and concern for others,
and make us ready to help and quick to forgive.
We thank you for every good thing in our lives
for home and friends and family;
for all the beauty and loveliness in the world about us
which has lifted our hearts and made us glad;
for life itself with all its promise and possibility.
We thank you that in every great experience of life,
when it seemed as if we were passing through water and fire
we are not alone, but you were there as companion and friend.
We thank you that we are yours, created for your glory;
that you have called us all by name,
that through Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep,
who lived and died and rose again for us,
you have redeemed us;
and that your love will never finally let us go, or ultimately give us up.
We thank you that so often you have come to us
in the ordinary and everyday things of life, in our work and in our leisure .
Help us there to seek you and find you and serve you,
as in Christ you have sought and found and served us.
We ask it for his sake. Amen.
— from Companion to the Lectionary, Volume 3, by Neil Dixon. Posted on the http://pilgrimwr.unitingchurch.org.au/ website.
For more worship resources for Easter 4 (Good Shepherd Sunday), click on Easter 4 Year A or Easter 4 Year B in the list of “Labels” at the lower right side of the page. See also Psalm 23 in the same list.
