Liturgy for Reflection and Prayers
(Adapted from Iona Community Morning Worship) Opening responses
The world belongs to God,
The earth and all its people.
How good it is, how wonderful,
To live together in unity.
Love and faith come together,
Justice and peace join hands.
If Christ’s disciples keep silent
These stones would shout aloud.
Open our lips, O God,
And our mouths shall proclaim your praise.
Confession
Holy God,Maker of all
Have mercy on us.
Jesus Christ, Servant of the poor
Have mercy on us.
Holy Spirit, Breath of life
Have mercy on us.
Let us in silence confess our faults and admit our frailty.
Before God, with the people of God, I confess to my brokenness:
to the ways I wound my life,
the lives of others,
and the life of the world.
May god forgive you, Christ renew you, And the spirit enable you to grow in love. Amen.
Before god, with the people of god,
We confess to our brokenness:
To the ways we wound our lives,
The lives of others,
And the life of the world.
May God forgive you, Christ renew you, and the Spirit enable you to grow in love. Amen.
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Prayer for God’s help
Move among us, O God; give us life:
Let your people rejoice in you.
Make our hearts clean within us:
Renew us in mind and in spirit.
Give us again the joy of your help:
With your spirit of freedom sustain us.
And now, as Jesus taught us, we say:
Our father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven, Give us today our daily bread,
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us, Save us in the time of trial
And deliver us from evil,
For the kingdom, the power
And the glory are yours,
Now and for ever. Amen.
Affirmation
With the whole church
We affirm
That we are made in god’s image,
Befriended by Christ, empowered by the spirit. With people everywhere
We affirm
God’s goodness at the heart of humanity, Planted more deeply than all that is wrong.
With all creation
We celebrate
The miracle and wonder of life;
The unfolding purposes of god,
Forever at work in ourselves and the world.
Psalm 104
24 O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
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25 This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
26 There the ships sail about;
There is that Leviathan
Which You have made to play there.
27 These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
28 What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
29 You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; May the LORD rejoice in His works.
32 He looks on the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the hills, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the LORD.
35 May sinners be consumed from the earth, And the wicked be no more.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
Praise the LORD!
Reading Colossians 1, 15 †20
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the pre-eminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Reflection
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Collect
Almighty God, you have created the heavens and the earth and made us in your own image:
teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever.
Amen
Intercessions, concluding with:
O God, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth. Lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe.
We ask it for your own name’s sake.
Amen
Closing responses
This is the day that God has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
We will not offer to God
Offerings that cost us nothing.
Go in peace to love and to serve;
We will seek peace and pursue it.
In the name of the Trinity of Love,
God in community, holy and one.
Into your hands we commit ourselves –
our souls, our bodies, our minds, our futures – for all things come from you
and are best kept in your care.
Amen
The Blessing
© The Iona Community
from The Iona Abbey Worship Book, published by Wild Goose Publications, Iona Community
“O the deep, deep love of Jesus” From “Celtic seasons of worship”
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