2nd Quarter - Year A- Issue of WorshipAid
March, April and May (2002)

Prayers for March 31, 2001

Easter

Prayer of Invocation

Joy has a name today. The name is Jesus Christ, Risen Today.

Peace has a name today. The name is Jesus Christ, without violence, escaped from the grave.

Grace has a name today. The name is Jesus Christ, fully given and spent in the world.

And we have a name today. Our name is Christian, those who follow Jesus towards joy, peace and grace, to our graves and beyond the grave. Amen

Prayer of Confession

Our hearts are scabbed; our knees have lost their cartilage, our eyes have grown weak and our hearing seems to be fading. We're not sure we can take much more and yet we know more may come. Give us enough healing to go on _ and encourage us in small, simple ways. Go to the places where we doubt the Resurrection and heal us. Grant us true joy today, doubts notwithstanding. Amen.

Prayer of Dedication

May these earthly gifts become heavenly in their use. May these gifts stop being just something to put on a credit card . May they instead become moments of joy and points of celebration. Thanks be to You O God. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

Rise up, O God, and claim us as your own. Let us be with you in bursting the doors off the graves, those of the "Benefits Now, Cost later" school. Let us find our way to truly rise _ not just eat the dinner and imagine that we have risen. Let us know some true joy in your immortality and therefore our chance at it. Let us think today about death and think freely about it. Where is its sting? Why do we need to be afraid? Have You not assured us that nothing can separate us from Your love? Are we not sealed by Your open tomb? Can we not find joy in the reunions to come, old friends and family we will see again?

Send us up stream, O God. Let us stay active and keep us from reactivity. Let us do what we can today. Let us learn to worry about what we can control and not worry about what we cannot control. Stick with us and help us stick with our lives on this side and ready us for that great day in the morning, the place where You already live. Whether we live or whether we die, we are Yours. For now, we are Yours here, alive and well. Let us make the most of this time. Amen.