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Listen to or read a short service of Prayer for Saturday 20 June 2020, the Saturday after the First Sunday of Trinity.
Preparation
O Lord, open our lips
and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
Praise
God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son.
Amen.
Psalm 89.25-33
‘I will set his dominion upon the sea
and his right hand upon the rivers.
He shall call to me, “You are my Father,
my God, and the rock of my salvation;”
And I will make him my firstborn,
the most high above the kings of the earth.
‘The love I have pledged to him will I keep for ever,
and my covenant will stand fast with him.
His seed also will I make to endure for ever
and his throne as the days of heaven.
‘But if his children forsake my law
and cease to walk in my judgements,
If they break my statutes
and do not keep my commandments,
I will punish their offences with a rod
and their sin with scourges.
‘But I will not take from him my steadfast love
nor suffer my truth to fail.’
Glory to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now
and shall be for ever. Amen.
Reading
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’
Matthew 6.24-34
This is the word of the Lord.
Prayers
Let us pray to God, the giver of all beauty in heaven and earth.
Inspire your Church with zeal to seek the Kingdom, setting aside all worldly concerns that may lead away from the goal. Let your people live each day as if it were the first and the last of your purpose for us, to make known the righteousness which is not our own but the fruit of your bounty.
As we give thanks for beauty of the natural world, we pray that it may not be lost through human greed and folly. May those who have control of change act responsibly, as knowing that they are stewards of a treasure not of their making, a glory beyond the riches of the kings and rulers of the earth.
When troubles come in our lives and we are concerned for ourselves or those near to us, make us free from the anxiety that destroys hope and show us the way that is opening before us. Confident in the love that sustains what love had created, let us seek to do your will in all things.
Comfort those who are weighed down by worry about food and clothing and other bodily needs. Help the individuals and the agencies working for the relief of poverty and give generous compassion to all who have enough to spare for others.
Bless in your nearer presence those who have ended their span of life and entered into beauty beyond anything they knew upon earth. May they find peace in the Kingdom where anxiety has gone and there is no more feat. because God’s righteousness is all in all.
We pray through Christ who has taught us to trust and not to be afraid.
Eternal God and Father,
you create and redeem us by the power of your love:
guide and strengthen us by your Spirit,
that we may give ourselves in love and service
to one another and to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
The Conclusion
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with us all evermore.
Amen.