Eastertide lasts until the celebration of Christ’s Ascension, ten days before Pentecost.The prayers below reflect Christ’s rising from death and its implications and incorporate references to creation and alludes to the environmental crises. This form is a beta testing version.
Alleluia, Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Our hopes are raised
Life emerges from death
Right is wrested from wrong
The uprising of Love has begun!
Draw alongside us, Lord Jesus,
Open up the scriptures to us by your Spirit,
so our hearts might be lit with fresh understanding
and fired up by your presence.
Psalm[s] and reading[s]. The reader or service leader, after the readings may say:
Here ends the reading.
Here begins its outworking.
There may be a time of quiet and/or shared reflection. A framework for reflection, using the pattern of the Lord’s prayer may be used.
Jesus said: ‘Do not doubt but trust.’ With Thomas we respond,
‘My Lord and my God!’
Let us hear for ourselves what Jesus replied,
‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to trust.’
…
We have these words so that we may come to believe and trust:
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
we have life in his name.*
We set God always before us:
who is at our right hand; we shall not fall.
Our hearts are glad
and our spirits rejoice;
Our flesh shall also rest secure
You will show us the path of life;
in your presence is the fullness of joy
and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.**
… Further appreciation of God may be voiced…
O God, you roll away the stone from our hearts, and brighten our imaginations with the dayspring of new life. In Christ you spoke Life into death’s unmaking, and infuse us with your Springtime.
God of new creation:
Hallowed be your name
In this world marred by sin and death, and yet marked by blessings and common grace…
Living God:
glorify your name.
Particular concerns for the world and its people are brought before God, you could pause between each of the one-line petitions*** following, using each one-liner to prompt further prayers. There are suggestions for climate and environment related prayers here and here.
In our world’s fractured global community, in our world’s distressed ecologies
Living God:
glorify your name.
In your church called to be, to do and to proclaim your new life to all creation
Living God:
glorify your name.
Among those whose lives our lives touch; friends, colleagues and families
Living God:
glorify your name.
We ask for God’s eternal-life-giving to be known in our world, saying,
Living God:
glorify your name
In our needs and weakness in our provision and supply…
We consider what we need to continue living in Christ
The risen Jesus makes common table with us.
As we make common cause with Christ:
Give us each day our daily bread.
Living God:
glorify your name.
Full-lively God, we come to you in sorrow for our sins, and confess to you our weaknesses and unbelief.
Recollection of what we need to repent.
We have fallen back into the systems of sin and death, failing to live the metabolism of the risen Christ.
Merciful God, forgive us.
And restore us to life.
We have entombed others in unforgiveness,
enshrouding them in contempt, withholding words of life.
Forgive us, Merciful God
And restore us to life-giving.
Let us attend; Christ breathes upon us the peace and forgiveness of God.
A moment for quiet reflection on our forgiveness.
Who will rescue us from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
As we seek to forge a new future living the life of Christ let us pause before the likely events and involvements and the unpredictable happenings that face us.
Time to reflect on the coming hours …
A collect prayer may be said.
In our laughter, and tears, in our fear and our hope, Living God:
Glorify your name.
Jesus comes to us and says,
‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’
He breathes upon disciples and says; ‘Receive the Holy Spirit….
Pause to reflect on Christ’s risen presence and call before we return to the rest of our lives.
Let us bless the Lord:
Thanks be to God
Who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Notes
*based on John 20:19ff
** From Psalm 16
***Prayers rewritten from an intercessions prayer in Patterns of Worship, 1995
Book of Our Common Prayer 