(L) Let Us Pray: Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your beloved Jesus Christ to this earth to take on our nature and to show us a still better way: Grant that we may discover within us the faith and courage to walk the path of peace that He lived and that He gave His life for.
(P) “Lord, help us take up the cross and follow the path to peace.”
(L) May the path toward peace begin in our hearts through utter
trust in your belief in us O God, and may our treasure be found
in your peace which surpasses our understanding and fuels our hope.
(P) “Lord, help us take up your cross and know the path to peace.”
(L) May the path toward peace pass straight into our homes, where prayer provides perspective and where faith fosters growth and healing and joys. May our homes become havens of peace.
(P) “Lord, help us take up your cross and practice the way of peace peace.”
(L) Let your path of peace extend to our neighborhoods and
communities, where the healing balm of grace may soothe the strains and stresses of daily life, and your spirit of generosity and loving-kindness may transform our cultures, streets and local affairs.
(P) “Lord, help me take up your cross and practice your way of Peace.”
(L) Let the peace which the world alone cannot give, that peace which you bestowed and wrote upon our hearts inform and transform the nations; that mutual aid might replace mutual destruction. And may the vision of care for God’s creation where there is war no more, where there is food for the hungry, clothes for the naked and security for the peoples of the earth become a vision shared.
(P) “Lord, help us take up your cross, and practice your way of Peace.”
(L) Dear God hear these our prayers and help move us toward
Eastertide where the power of love reigns and the community of Resurrection springs forth to transform hearts and homes and world.
(P) “Lord, accomplish in us the work of your salvation. Help us Lift high your cross and follow you.”
(L) All this we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our pattern and our Savior.
(P) Amen.
From the Rev. William Exner, St. Matthew’s, Goffstown, NH
