Good morning everyone:                           

The reading this week is Fifth Sunday after Pentecost:
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67     Psalm 45:10-17     Rom 7:15-25a    Matt 11:16-19, 25-30      

See below for the Prayers of the People. Graham Fowler prepared them for today.   

To hear Jim’s sermon, please click HERE.

Prayers of the People

We pray for the church:   Integral God,   Who is transforming us with patience and gentleness into a catholic church. May we embrace with our lives this gospel awakening, into an already existing wholeness. Deepen in us this reality through unity, creativity, convergence, and consciousness.  Amen.  

We pray for Creation:   Cosmic God,   Creator of all things, may we be at peace with both the wild and the wonderfulness of creation.  We long for wholeness and harmony, in a radically diverse creation. May we hear and dance with joy to the flute in the market place, and may we hear the strangled cry of the suffering, mourning together for the broken and the desperate.  Amen.  

We pray for our local community:   Son of man,   Lover of community, of eating and drinking together, of working and playing together, praying and worshiping together. We pray for those we miss right now, for those who need comfort and reassurance, for those who may be lonely and afraid.  We send our love and blessings to all our brothers, and sisters, embracing one another in your love. God walks among us, leaving no prints in the sand but burning love into our hearts.  Amen.  

We pray for the sick and the suffering everywhere:   God who walks with the sick and the suffering,   Our desire is for the health and wholeness of creation. We cry out Lord, the soul of the world is weary, who will care for us?   Help us to come to you Lord, offering our weakness and burdens, accepting your yoke, and learning from you.   Your burden is light in us to the world. We ask for courage to live with both the wild and the wonderful things that we must face in the world as you did.  And offer ourselves with gentle and humble hearts, to bring your rest to the weary and the burdened.    Amen.  

For those who have died, and those who mourn:   God of life after life,    Comfort those who have lost loved ones, and thank you for the life of those who have come home to you. Giving rest to your beloved, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.  Amen.