Prayer

A Prayer for Mission

A general prayer for God’s work in the world:

O gracious and loving God, you work everywhere reconciling, loving, and healing your people and your creation. In your Son and through the power of your Holy Spirit, you invite each of us to join you in your work. We, young and old, lay and ordained, ask you to form us more and more in your image and likeness, through our prayer and worship of you and through the study of your scripture, that our eyes will be fully opened to your mission in the world. Then, God, into our communities, our nation, and the world, send us to serve with Christ, taking risks to give life and hope to all people and all of your creation. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer for a Missionary:

Knowing that someone is supporting you in prayer is a powerful encouragement to a missioner in the field. You can make contact with a missioner and let him or her know that they will be lifted up daily in prayer. A sample prayer is shown below:

O Lord, our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be ministered to, but to minister; we pray for your blessing on _________________. As your servant ___________________ follows in His footsteps, loving and serving her/his neighbors, fill him/her with wisdom, patience, perseverance, humility and courage. Enable her/him to share his/her gifts generously with those whom he/she meets. Give _________________ an attentive mind and compassionate heart to see the face of Christ in all those whom he/she may encounter. Give your servant daily encouragement and a ready will. Inspire him/her with your love, that ________________ may worthily minister in your name, in a spirit of reconciliation with God and with each and every neighbor. Keep your servant, ________________, safe from injury, and bring him/her home renewed and rejoicing. All this we ask through Him who laid down his life for us, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Thanksgiving Prayer for Mission:

“We often focus so much on praying for mission that we miss the option of giving thanks for mission. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church offers precisely that opportunity in the omnibus section, “Thanksgivings,” that begins on p. 836. The third and relatively little used of those thanksgivings, “For the Mission of the Church” is found on p. 838” [Titus Presler, titusonmission.wordpress.com]:

Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours for ever. Amen.

Prayer of St. Francis:

This prayer, attributed to St. Francis, is a reminder of our role as bearers of God’s love in the reconciliation of all relationships:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.