God our Father,
bless humanity on its journey,
bless its longing, heal its wounds, and come to meet it through Jesus, your Son, our Brother.
May his Word and his deeds stir within us a greater sense of humanity, and may we know how to share his
Hope with our sisters and brothers on the journey. We pray this through him, Jesus, our Liberator.
Lord,
every morning you stand at the door,
place in my heart the treasure of patience,
place in my heart the spirit of hope,
place in my heart a love that endures to the very end,
for this day and until the day when all shall know
that you love them infinitely…
Prayer for the Friends of “Lutte et contemplation”
It is your Word that has set them in motion.
It is the Gospel that leads them into resistance
and sometimes also into dissent.
But it is also in your Word
that they draw the strength of Hope.
You who said to Moses and to all the prophets
who shrank from the task:
I will be with you!
To each and every one, say it again, God,
as you did to all those whom the Gospel one day
set in motion – in resistance and in hope:
I will be with you!
God,
you said to Moses:
Go, free my people. And he shrank back:
‘Please, Lord, send someone else, but not me!’
Jeremiah also protested: ‘I cannot speak, I am only a child!’
And we too, when your Word touches our hearts, begin to tremble
and sometimes retreat.
Yet your Word is our joy,
yet your trust lifts us up,
the mission you entrust to us is beautiful,
deep within us it raises great hope.
Tonight, in our common prayer, we welcome your Holy Spirit.
In our weakness, he can accomplish more than we dare to think.
Together, one with another,
we offer you our desire to follow in your footsteps,
Jesus, our companion on the journey.
Lord Jesus, you say to us: come to me, all you who labour, and I will give you rest.
We pray to you, see the multitude of poor people who count for nothing in the eyes of our societies.
See those who cannot resist evil and who suffer because of it.
Lord, see those whom illness, age, and events have left powerless,
with empty hands.
Lord, you who welcome us as we are, may we in turn know how to
welcome one another and let your light shine through our shadows…
God, you loved the world, but does the world know it?
So often it searches for you in its darkness,
so often it denies all stars.
With those who, at the beginning of Lent,
renew their trust in you, we bless you.
With those who, despite war,
do not give up on a possible tomorrow,
we bless you.
With parents who, despite uncertainty and precariousness,
still choose to give life today,
we bless you.
With those who are committed to the most vulnerable
and who, despite multiple challenges and their powerlessness,
stand firm in their constant presence,
we bless you.
Lord Jesus,
you always precede us in prayer,
even before we gather together, you were waiting for us.
Blessed are you for your Presence that inspires ours.
You are there, without dwelling on our poverty, our distractions,
which so often have made us forget to put on our festive attire.
You are there before our words, more attentive to what we try to stammer out
than to the perfect harmony of our songs.
You lend us your Spirit so that He may breathe into us the Name above all Names,
the right Name, unspeakable without the Spirit, and which makes us sure and brothers.
Thanks be to you, Jesus, Lord, for being here again tonight to receive our prayer.
A long journey begins for us, Lord,
and we do not like what drags on,
we know too well how habits and weariness catch up with us.
Lighten us of all that weighs down our walk,
lead us towards that simplicity of heart,
that fallow ground of the soul that ‘pursues neither grand designs nor wonders beyond our reach’
(Ps 130) but unifies our desire and enables us to find our joy in You,
God, always waiting for our presence.
God of the impossible, you who freed your people from the yoke of slavery,
today, once again, come and open our lives to new possibilities.
From the hardest rock, bring forth water for our thirst,
and may gentleness and kindness once again irrigate our relationships.
God of the impossible, give us a new heart.
In the desert of daily life, when habit and monotony smooth the horizon and lull our vigilance,
come and bring forth something new, open our eyes to the signs of the times.
God of the impossible, reawaken our hope.
Since Moses and the people of the desert, tracing their path by the light of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night,
we are that people journeying towards the promised land.
But when the desert wind erases the tracks in the sand, when the oases recede and water becomes
scarce and slows the progress of us pilgrims, turn our gaze to that rock which
brings forth living water, Christ who went to the end of love.
Blessed are you for the One in whom our hope is anchored, Jesus, your Son.
Through Him we pass from death to life, starting today.
