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Posts Tagged "Intercessions for Trinity + 10 Year B":

Intercessions for Trinity + 10 Year B (Proper 14): 9 August 2015

Bread of life

Bread of life by Matt Hoile courtesy of Veritasse

The Collect

Let your merciful ears, O Lord,  be open to the prayers of your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall  please you; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

¶ The Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: 2 Samuel 18.5-9,15,31-33

The king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.’ And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom. So the army went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. The battle spread over the face of all the country; and the forest claimed more victims that day than the sword. Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And ten young men, Joab’s armour-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him, and killed him. Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, ‘Good tidings for my lord the king! For the Lord has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the power of all who rose up against you.’ The king said to the Cushite, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ The Cushite answered, ‘May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.’ The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!’

Psalm 130

Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; * let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
If you, Lord, were to mark what is done amiss, *O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you, *so that you shall be feared.
I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; *in his word is my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord, more than the night watch for the morning, *more than the night watch for the morning.
O Israel, wait for the Lord, *for with the Lord there is mercy;
With him is plenteous redemption *and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.

 

Second Reading: Ephesians 4.25-5.2

Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Gospel Reading: John 6.35,41-51

Jesus said to the crowd, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

You can find the relevant passage in Jane Williams by searching here for ‘innately’. Here is how she ends:

Bread

Prayers of Intercession

¶The Church of Christ

Lord, we thank you for being a part of our lives in every moment of our day, not just at Sunday worship. In manifesting yourself through the very bread that we eat, you are with us in all the ordinariness of our lives. And through your presence in the everyday, the ordinary becomes charged with your grace. When we share the living bread at the altar, may we remember that we are also members one of another,  working as your Church for the coming of your kingdom here on earth.

 Lord, help us to live simply that others may simply live: in your mercy, hear our prayer

 

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

Lord, you have created this wonderful world, and filled it with your abundant gifts. But we have exploited it for our own ends, and with little thought for future generations. Lord, help us now to work together as good stewards of this earth and its creatures that we may yet save it with good husbandry and your grace.

 Lord, help us to live simply that others may simply live: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The local community

Lord, as the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make each of us an island, set apart with you,  alone with you and holy to you. Leave us each alone with you as often, and for as long, as may be. And then,  as the waters recede with the turning of the tide,  prepare us to carry your presence out into the busy world beyond, the world that rushes in on us, until once more the waters return and fold us back into you.

 Lord, help us to live simply that others may simply live: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶Those who suffer

Lord, we remember before you all those for whom finding even daily bread to eat is a constant struggle. We pray for those who have been displaced by war, with their homes and communities destroyed and, with them, their way of life. We pray for those who set out into uncharted waters in the hope of finding a better future for themselves and their families. We pray for all those who suffer.

 Lord, help us to live simply that others may simply live: in your mercy, hear our prayer

¶The communion of saints

Lord, according to your promise, grant eternal life to those who have died in the faith of Christ. ..As they were strengthened by the bread of life in this world, grant them everlasting presence in your heavenly kingdom.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers…

Prayer after Communion

God of our pilgrimage,
you have willed that the gate of mercy
should stand open for those who trust in you:
look upon us with your favour
that we who follow the path of your will
may never wander from the way of life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.


 

First, a little bleat aimed at the Liturgical Commission: There are 150 psalms to choose from, that is almost one for every week of the three year cycle. That being the case, why do we have Psalm 130 – out of the depths – again for the 10th  Sunday after Trinity when we had it only six weeks ago, for the 4th Sunday after Trinity on 28 June 2015? And also on 6 April 2014, Year A, on the 5th Sunday of Lent.

Next, a note on sources this week, which are a little unusual:

The first is the sermon on the bread of life for last Sunday on the blog of the Beaker Folk of Hursborne Crawley. I urge you to read the whole blog post, as I cannot condense it into one prayer. In essence, he is pointing out that bread was the most ordinary thing in the world in 1st century Judea, the basic, staple, everyday diet, very restricted in its scope compared to ours.

The second is the prayer under the heading ‘local community’, which I have based on the prayer attributed to St Aidan, quoted by Taylor Carey in his article on this blog yesterday. It represents an eternal truth, that we cannot give of ourselves to our community without spending time alone with God in prayer: in order to be outward-looking, we need also to spend time in contemplation.


 

Copyright acknowledgement (where not already indicated above): Some material included in this service is copyright: © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA Post Communion (10th after Trinity) © Rt Revd David S. Stancliffe Some material included in this service is copyright: © The Archbishops’ Council 2000 Collect (10th after Trinity) © The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)

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