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

Prayers for April 7, 2002

2nd Sunday of Easter

Invocation

Save us from doubts and dillydallying that make us ineffective as children of God. Open us to faith that moves and dances on Your waving, flowing life. Remove us from the role of bystander and place us in the path of life. Both now and forever more. Amen.

Prayer of Confession

For patience, we pray O God. Where our hearts are black and blue for the hurt of fallen buildings and downed innocent people, heal us. Where our knees are dirty from praying long and hard and still not understanding, raise us up and heal us. Where our confession has edged out our clarity, over doubt played havoc with our faith and our hope yielded to our despair heal us. Turn us around. Turn us towards you. And let our turning predict the end to war and beginning of
peace. Amen.

Prayer of Dedication

From heaven above to earth You have come, O God. Now as You have conquered death, so conquer all that would keep us from true generosity, from true capacity to give. Let us be awakened by the open tomb. In Jesus' Holy Name, Amen.

Pastoral Prayer

Today we pray for steadiness, for the chance to stand straight and tall in the hope and light of Resurrection Day. Indeed, there are times when our hands shake and we feel the rush of adrenaline in our veins. We don't know when the shaking will stop or when it will start up again. We do know fear. But we also know what it means to live on the other side of fear, in a place that is free from fear, where doubt cannot manage us.

We rise in joy with the sun, we wake up to a new day and give thanks. We remember our loved ones, mother, father, dead or alive, sister, brother, dead or alive, we name our children's name and place them in Your light. We remember friends from our childhood and our schools, our colleges and our sports team. We remember the relationships that haven't worked out for us and pray that they too may be held in the light of resurrection hope.

We pray for the ill and the homeless, the weak and the lame. We pray that we will not use our own health as a badge of courage so much as a grace from You. And we pray that You will grant us your steady peace, day by day, in every way. Amen.