Bread prayer card

Bread prayer

We Gather …
O God, feed us with the bread of your word. Let us eat and be filled at your table. May we taste your sweetness, O God. Fill us with the bread that gives life.

We listen… A reading from the prophet Isaiah (55:1-3)

Thus says the Lord: Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy corn without money, and eat, and, at no cost, wine and milk. Why spend money on what is not bread, your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy. Pay attention, come to me; listen, and your soul will live. With you I will make an everlasting covenant out of the favours promised to David.

We reflect and respond…

We ask…
Christ Jesus, you are our living bread. In your love for us you give us the gift of your Body and your Blood. You feed us at your table and sustain us on our journey. Hear us now as we pray.

Christ Jesus, living bread, your people die from lack of food:

Send them food of body and spirit to satisfy their need.

Christ Jesus, living bread, your people walk in the darkness of discouragement:

Let the bread of your word bring them light and strength.

Christ Jesus, living bread, your people feel the divisiveness of prejudice and discrimination:

Open our hearts to welcome all people as brothers and sisters at one table.

Christ Jesus, living bread, your people experience violence in their midst:

Strengthen us with the bread of life, that we may be advocates of nonviolence and ministers of justice and peace.

Christ Jesus, living bread, your people suffer the pain of ignorance and idleness:

Help us create a society in which all who seek education and employment may have their needs fulfilled.

We are sent forth…

God of life, you gave us Jesus to be our food and drink. May we who share in the one bread and drink of the one cup strive for unity of mind and heart in sharing whatever we have. May divisions cease and may enemies seek reconciliation. May the stranger and the outcast be welcome at our feast. This we ask in the name of Jesus, our living bread. Amen.

Intercessions: Intercessions of Mercy compiled, edited and expanded by Joy Clough, rsm © 2009, Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas and published by ACTA Publications, Stokie, IL.