Cross Prayer Card

Cross Prayer

We gather…
O God, send us your Spirit, that the fire of love may burn within us. Lover of us all, Make our hearts like yours

We listen… (1 John 4, 7-12) Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten of God and has knowledge of God. The person without love has known nothing of God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way: he sent his only Son to the world that we might have life through him. Beloved, if God has loved us so, we must have the same love for one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet if we love one another God dwells in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is the word of the Lord.

We reflect and respond…
We must learn to realize that the love of God seeks us in every situation and seeks our good. His inscrutable love seeks our awakening…For it is God’s love that warms me in the sun and God’s love that feeds me in the bread I eat and God that feeds me also by hunger and fasting.
Thomas Merton Seeds of Contemplation

We ask…

For all who live in the darkness of depression, we pray:

Send them courage and solace, O God.

For all who suffer in silence, feeling abandoned or neglected, we pray:

Send them healing and support, O God.

For all who struggle with loneliness and isolation, we pray:

Send them companionship and kindness, O God.

For those who believe themselves forgotten or rejected, we pray:

Send them comfort and acceptance, O God.

For those who feel that life is meaningless and useless, we pray:

Send them a revelation of your love, O God.

We are sent forth…

Jesus, may our life this day bring us to a deeper awareness of your presence in our sisters and brothers. As we contemplate your suffering in them, may we be clothed with heartfelt mercy and moved to action on their behalf. We ask that your tender care and compassionate justice reign in our world. Amen.

Gathering Prayer, Final Prayer and 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.