1st Quarter - Year A- Issue of WorshipAid
December, January and February (2001-2002)

Prayers for February 17, 2002

1st Sunday in Lent

Invocation

Let us now surrender to lent. Let it be us and us be it. Let us enter fully the time of holy hope, the path that leads through Golgotha to Easter.

Prayer of Confession

For the roads we could have taken and didn't, forgive us. For the responsibilities we ducked, forgive us. For the hopes we could have nourished and the words we could have said, forgive us. God Almighty, turn these stones into bread.

Prayer of Dedication:

Let this money make for peace and justice and let it be a genuine obstacle to evil and to the temptations we will face this week. We pray this in the name of Jesus who withstood all evil. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

May the world be fed with justice; may the cities be free of evil. May we throw ourselves off pinnacles of arrogance and conceit, may we divest false power on behalf of your power—and may your angels take charge of us, lest we dash our foot against the stones.

Bless our children and our parents, our President and our congress, our mayor and those who serve us so faithfully and well who regularly pick up our garbage or answer the phone. Bless our jobs and the way we use or paychecks. Make sure we have some holy leisure this day and some time to pray and play.

And grant us some freedom from evil. Amen.