re:Worship: World Food Day

Showing posts with label World Food Day. Show all posts

Prayer: Mark 10: 24-25

Here’s a prayer of confession and dedication from Jan Berry’s collection of prayers, Bread of Tomorrow. It came to mind when working through the gospel reading for Proper 23B:

“But Jesus said to them again,

‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’” Mark 10:24-25

Prayer of Confession and Dedication:

Spoiled Children

God, You heap your love upon us

like a parent providing for a family’s needs,

embracing a child with tenderness.

Forgive us

when, like spoiled children,

we treat Your generosity as our right,

or hug it possessively to ourselves.

Give us enough trust to live secure in Your love

and to share it freely with others

in open-handed confidence

that Your grace will never run out. Amen.

Sending Words: The Faith of Fools

Here are sending words inspired by Paul’s teaching about “foolishness” in 1 Corinthians. It was written by Cheryl Lawrie, and posted on [hold this space].

Sending Words

(inspired by 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, 3:18-20)

They are right,
those who doubt what we do.
It is purely the product of over-active imaginations.

Who but the foolish would look at barren ground and imagine food for all,
see past desolation and believe it will become an oasis,
would not be stopped by war, but live for the day it will be peace,
and reach deep into the world’s fear in the prayer it would bring life.

So if faith is the terrain of the deluded
then may you leave here with the faith of the fools
who have loved the world since it’s beginning
and will live for its redemption until its end.

~ written by Cheryl Lawrie, and posted on [hold this space]. http://holdthisspace.org.au/

Opening Prayer: Jeremiah 31

Here’s an opening prayer I wrote for World Food Day (October 16). It draws on scripture texts from Proper 24C.

Opening Prayer

God of love and justice,

we gather together to worship you:

to offer our thanks and praise

and to proclaim your goodness and mercy.

Meet us here.

Breathe your Word into our souls;

engrave your covenant of love upon our hearts.

Teach us faithfulness and compassion

so that our lives may reflect

your love and justice to the world.

Amen.

For more resources for World Food Day (October 16), visit the Canadian Foodgrains Bank website at http://foodgrainsbank.ca/product/world-food-day-2016-hunger-for-justice/

Prayer for the Offering: Jeremiah 31

Here’s an offering prayer I wrote for World Food Day (October 16). It’s part of a larger worship resource I put together for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. (See link below.)

Prayer for the Offering

(inspired by Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Generous God,

through your Son, Jesus Christ,

you have shown us what it means to love.

And you call us to follow Your example—

to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

Continue to write your law of love on our hearts.

Give us an unwavering passion for justice,

and a tenacious faith that will not rest

until the hungry are fed,

the oppressed find relief,

and the outsider finds a welcome. Amen.

~ Christine Longhurst, in Hunger for Justice: World Food Day 2016, posted on the Canadian Foodgrains Bank website. http://foodgrainsbank.ca/product/world-food-day-2016-hunger-for-justice/

Prayer: Seeing the World Differently

Here’s a prayer of petition from the Christian Aid website.

Prayer

“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree,

‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’” Luke 17:6

Boundless God,
help us to see the world differently—
not with our own limited vision
but with the gaze of love and justice.

Give us the foolishness to believe that we can change
what the world says is impossible;
and when we lose sight of the power of love to change the world
increase our faith. Amen.

~ posted on the Christian Aid website. http://www.christianaid.org.uk/

Prayer: Open Our Eyes!

A prayer of invocation, confession and commitment inspired by Mark 10:51. It comes from the Baptist Union of Great Britain website.

Prayer of Invocation: Open Our Eyes!

(inspired by Mark 10:51)

“’Teacher,’ the blind man said, ‘I want to see!” Mark 10:51

Lord God, our Provider.

We worship you as the one who meets our needs,

who grants our daily bread,

who restores our humanity.

We worship you as the God who knows human need from experience,

who knows want, and thirst and humiliation.

And we worship you as your people,

in a world where wealth is mixed with poverty;

where we have all we need, but don’t know how to share.

Where want, and hunger and thirst and humiliation are hidden

from those with the power to offer challenge and bring change.

So, open our eyes.

Not only that we learn sad facts about the world.

But open the eyes of our heart,

that we may feel our place in this world, as your people.

Where there is need,

teach us to learn where our wealth lies, and help us to give.

Where there is injustice,

teach us to learn the causes, and help us to fight.

Where there is brokenness,

teach us to learn of our own brokenness, and help us to bring wholeness.

Help us to look to you,

that we neither remain ignorant of the world,

nor lose ourselves in despair at its brokenness.

Show us how to worship you,

the crucified God,

the risen God,

the God who provides.

Help us to carry our cross,

to accept your gift of new life,

to bring that gift to others.

~ from the Baptist Union of Great Britain website. http://www.baptist.org.uk/

Imagine - Life for All

Imagine what else would change today
if we dared demand it of love.

If we didn’t stop where the rules ended,
were no longer bound by common sense
or right and wrong
or justice and fairness
and who deserves what.

If we expected life for all
anyway…

~ written by Cheryl Lawrie, and posted on [hold this space]. http://holdthisspace.org.au/

Prayer of Confession: 2 Corinthians 9: 6-11

Here’s a responsive prayer of confession inspired by 2 Corinthians 9:6-11. It was posted on the Giving in Grace website.

Prayer of Confession

(inspired by 2 Corinthians 9:6-11)

When we have sown sparingly;

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

When we have given reluctantly;

so often we make excuses.

Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

That we may know the joy of cheerful giving;

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

May Almighty God have mercy on us,

forgive us our sins,

and keep us in eternal life. Amen.

~ from “Giving in Grace: Liturgical Services – Matthew.” http://www.givingingrace.org/userfiles/files/Design/Matthew_liturgical_services.pdf

Litany of Thanksgiving

Here’s a litany of thanksgiving and commitment from Catholic Relief Services.

Litany of Thanksgiving

God Most High,

Before your son fed the multitudes, he first gave thanks.

Before he raised his friend Lazarus, he first gave thanks,

that all might know your glory.

And so, as we are blessed to do your works in the world,

that all, indeed, might know your glory

we thank you and praise you, O Lord.

For the grace to feed the poor