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Intercessions for Advent 2 – Year C – 6 December 2015 series 2

 

Collect

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness we are grievously hindered in running the race that is set before us, your bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; Amen.

The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Baruch 5.1-9

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on for ever the beauty of the glory from God. Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God; put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting; for God will show your splendour everywhere under heaven. For God will give you evermore the name, ‘Righteous Peace, Godly Glory’.  Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height; look towards the east, and see your children gathered from west and east at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that God has remembered them. For they went out from you on foot, led away by their enemies; but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne. For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low and the valleys filled up, to make level ground, so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. The woods and every fragrant tree have shaded Israel at God’s command. For God will lead Israel with joy, in the light of his glory, with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Or

Malachi 3.1-4

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

 

Psalm (Canticle): Luke 1.68-79 (Benedictus)

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, ♦ who has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty Saviour, ♦ born of the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets God promised of old ♦ to save us from our enemies, from the hands of all that hate us,
To show mercy to our ancestors, ♦ and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham: ♦ to set us free from the hands of our enemies,
Free to worship him without fear, ♦ holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, ♦ for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
To give his people knowledge of salvation ♦ by the forgiveness of all their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God ♦ the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, ♦ and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

 

Second Reading: Philippians 1.3-11

 I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s gracewith me, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

 

Gospel Reading: Luke 3.1-6

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” ’

Prayers of Intercession

Let us pray to the Lord for the word of salvation to be made known to all people.

 ¶The Church of Christ

Lord, as we prepare for the coming of the Christ child, help us to divest ourselves of the curlicues of our faith, the desire to gild the lily, already perfect in its simplicity. At the Nativity, we may take up the adornments once more, one by one, but help us for a season to leave to one side the weighing of theological argument and the complexities of doctrine which we love to ponder. Let us instead explore inwards as we once more confront the astounding core of our belief: that you were made man in Palestine, and live today in bread and wine.

Lord, who sent us the light of the world to enlighten our lives, in your mercy, hear our prayer

 

¶Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

Lord, you know we are engaged in a struggle to prevent the world from tearing itself apart, particularly in the Middle East. Guide, we beseech you, those who now hope to use the weapons of war to forge a lasting peace among the nations. May your dawn from on high break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of Peace.

Lord, who sent us the light of the world to enlighten our lives, in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The local community

Lord, we thank you for those around us who make us feel more alive. We thank you for those who offer us companionship and affection, and are a real blessing to us. May we hold them in your loving care and be a blessing to them in return.

Lord, who sent us the light of the world to enlighten our lives, in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Those who suffer

Lord, our healer, whose mercy is like a refining fire, use our sufferings, if you will, to refine our bodies and minds so that we may emerge purified and restored to health. And then, being first challenged and then comforted by you, may we in our turn then reach out to a troubled world.

Lord, who sent us the light of the world to enlighten our lives, in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The communion of saints

We pray for all those whom we have loved, and who have now departed this life. We pray for all those who sacrifice themselves in the service of others. May they all rest in peace and rise in glory to be with you in the Eternal Kingdom.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers…

Prayer after Communion

Father in heaven,
who sent your Son to redeem the world
and will send him again to be our judge:
give us grace so to imitate him
in the humility and purity of his first coming
that, when he comes again,
we may be ready to greet him
with joyful love and firm faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Copyright acknowledgement (where not already indicated above): Philippians 1.3-11 © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Pub. Hodder & Stoughton Post Communion (2nd of Advent) © 1980, 1986 Mowbray, a Cassell Imprint: Prayers for the Alternative Services comp. David Silk Invitation to Confession (1st Sun. of Advent to Christmas Eve) © 1988 Continuum (Mowbray)  Adapted) Some material included in this service is copyright: © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA Some material included in this service is copyright: © The Archbishops’ Council 2000 Some material included in this service is copyright: © The Archbishops’ Council 2002 Some material included in this service is copyright: © The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

2 comments on this post:

Henry Mensah-Brown said...
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A set of the most pleasant but poignant intercessional prayers befitting our time. Thank you

Lay Anglicana said...
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And I thank you, Henry. Very much.

07 December 2015 22:08
05 December 2015 14:41

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