A Prayer of lament

Opening Prayer

Lord Jesus we believe and trust that you know and feel deeply our tragedies, losses and pain. You bear them all in love, affirming our condition, carrying our sorrows to the end, all the way to the heart of God.”
-A2J Community

​(silent reflection)

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Prayer of the Bible

“My God, my God” “Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. . . . My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death”  “Lord, do not be far from me. . . . Come quickly to help me.
-Psalm 22


(Free expression of praise and thanksgiving to God)

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Confession

Let the water and the blood from Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure
-Augustus M. Toplady


(Time of silence for confession of sin)

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The Words of Jesus

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.  “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.  Jesus wept.
-John 11:32-35


(Think deeply on these life-giving words of Jesus)

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Prayer for Ourselves and Others

Help me Lord to not live out of selfish ambitions or vain conceit, but in humility esteem others as more important than myself.  Let me not look out only to my own interested, but also to the interests of others.  
-Philippians 2:3-4


(Time to bring before God our own needs and the needs of others)

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Closing Prayer

Triune God we bless you, we confess our faith in you!   We believe that you, God came in Jesus to the place where the pain was greatest, to take it upon yourself. We believe that you God come today, in the Spirit, to the place where the pain is still at its height, to share the groaning of this world in order to bring the world to new life. Come Holy Spirit and dwell within us your people and enable us to stand, in prayer and suffering, at that place of pain and meet you there.  Amen
-A2J Community