Ready-to-use prayers for public worship during Lent and Holy Week. Handy, helpful prayers to use in public worship during Lent and Holy week. The collection includes invocations, opening prayers, prayers of confession, and pastoral prayers for the Sundays of Lent, Palm/Passion Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday services. Drawn from a variety of traditions, the prayers in this collection will aid any congregation as it worships throughout the journey of Lent. David N. Mosser is senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Arlington Texas. An adjunct homiletics professor at Perkins School of Theology (SMU) in Dallas, he is the editor of the Abingdon Preaching Annual.
Prayers for Lent and Holy Week
Just In Time SeriesBy David MosserAbingdon Press
Copyright © 2010 The United Methodist Publishing House
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4267-1031-5Chapter One
Ash Wednesday
Invocation (Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 5–6; Matthew 6)
O Lord, open our hearts that we may acknowledge our failings. Open our lips that we may declare your praise. Although we each fall short, we praise you in the name of Christ who takes away our sin and invites us to walk in the paths of righteousness. May our Lenten fast begin not with dismal faces or with sorrowful frowns, but with faces aglow in the oil of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Invocation (Joel 2)
God of dust and ash, you fashioned us from the dust of the earth, and to dust we shall return. May the ashes placed upon our foreheads this day remind us of who we are and whose we are. Draw us back to you, O God, for you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Heal the hardness of our hearts, that we may be faithful disciples of the one who makes all things new. Amen.
Invocation
Loving God, come to us now. Come to those who are lonely and frightened. Come to those who are sick and discouraged. Come to our neighbors and friends. Build us up as your disciples, teaching us truth and showing us how to be a people of love and grace. Amen.
Invocation (Adapted from Psalm 84)
O God, how lovely is your dwelling place. My soul longs for you. Come into this place. Dwell in us. Answer our longing with your presence. Accept our offering of praise. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole hearts, and we have not loved our neighbors as we love ourselves. Forgive us, we pray. Open our hearts wide to you, that you might renew our faith and strengthen us for obedient service. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
O God who will not let us go, as we worship this day we confess that we have been so wrapped up in ourselves that we have taken little note of either you or our neighbor who is in need. Forgive us, we pray, when we forget that our own scripture tells us that you, O God, "created humankind in [your] image, in the image of [you, you] created them; male and female [you] created them" (Genesis 1:27). On this Ash Wednesday bring to our consciousness the truth that it is from the dust we came and to the dust we will return. Between these moments of dust, Lord, let us shine as those "crowned ... with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:5). Bring this to pass as we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Words of Assurance
When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, cleansing us from all unrighteousness. God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 51)
Holy God, wash us thoroughly of our iniquity and cleanse us from our sin; for our transgressions are ever before us and we have done what is evil in your sight. You desire truth in our inward being, yet we turn our backs on the wisdom you would impart in our hearts. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within us. Do not cast us away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from us. Forgive our sins and lead us in your paths anew that we might teach transgressors your ways and lead sinners to return to you. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Joel 2:12-13)
Hear the words of the prophet Joel: "Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for [God] is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing."
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 51)
Merciful God, cleanse us with hyssop; wash us white as snow. You desire truth in our inner being—truth about our many failings: lust (pause), greed (pause), oppression (pause), violence (pause), intolerance (pause), racism (pause). Purge our sins with the atoning hyssop of Christ the Lord. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Joel 2)
The promise of God is clear. When we return to the Lord, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. When we return to the Lord with weeping and fasting, God forgives our sin and blesses us with a renewed and deepened relationship with the Almighty.
Pastoral Prayer
O Lord our God, we praise you above all creatures and all things. We lift prayers of thanks for the amazing fact that you loved us enough to give yourself fully for us. Now we have the challenge of trying to live fully for you. Help us in the task of discipleship. Be our spiritual teacher; remove our thick clouds of ignorance. Help us, O God, to live by the pattern and example given to us by Jesus Christ. Give us an eagerness and joyful desire to obey your command to make disciples of all nations. Send us out with renewed courage to proclaim the faith and hope within us to a world that needs both so that we may become your body in the world. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
O God in whom we live and move and have our being, as you collect us for worship remind us that we are mortal and you are divine. Too often in our world today, the creature has forgotten the creator. We are at our best, O Lord, when we remember, and we are at our worst when we forget. Give us sacred memory of the order of creation and our place in the order of salvation. May we once again claim our rightful place as stewards of your manifold gifts. In Jesus' name and on this Ash Wednesday, we pray. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer
In the darkness and drear of too much of the high life, Gracious Presence, be for us the light that illumes the truth for our time and place. Frequently we punish ourselves by reaching for things beyond the grasp of what is indeed good for us. As we worship this night bring to mind that we are indeed our sisters' and brothers' keepers. Inspire us to feed others as you have first fed us. As the celebrants apply ashes to our foreheads, make us mindful that you, O God, unite us with all people around the world and through the centuries by our common sin and need of salvation. God, make your deliverance manifest this holy night as you offer us Jesus. Amen.
Offering Prayer (Matthew 6) Gracious God, we have sought recognition for our piety and taken pride in our giving, congratulating ourselves for caring about our neighbors. Receive these offerings in the spirit of your Son, who taught us that where our heart is, there our treasure will be also. Amen.
Offering Prayer (Psalm 51)
What would make you happy, O God? We know it is not sacrifice. Our cash is cold and hard and heartless as it drops into the offering plate. You have told us what is pleasing: a broken and contrite heart. Receive this day our sacrifice of praise as we give to you from the very depths of our souls. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Offering Prayer
To you, Author of Benevolence, we owe our gratitude. You have made us all that we are and all we hope to become. Your bounty is too great for us to authentically understand—we can only wonder. Yet, like huffy children, thanksgiving fails to trip easily from our lips. Mostly we function as those who believe that we are the beneficiaries of our own talents and labor. Disabuse us of this notion and make us grateful people once again, in Christ's name. Amen.
Benediction
God guide you this week into the places and unto the people where God needs your voice. In that moment, may you speak the good news, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Benediction
And now go into the world, into the uttermost regions, and serve your brothers and sisters. You go with the successes in faith and with the Peters and the Judases as well, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Benediction
Expect something new to happen in this Lenten season. Walk through the wilderness with the hope of Christ. Share the gift of friendship and hospitality with others, for this is what our Lord has done for us. Amen.
Benediction (Psalm 51)
Wash us thoroughly from our iniquities and we will be whiter than snow. Bathe us in your steadfast love. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and help us hear the joy of your calling. Restore to us the joy of your salvation. Go with God's blessing. Amen.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Prayers for Lent and Holy Weekby David Mosser Copyright © 2010 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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