Pastoral Prayer, Palm Passion Sunday

Caught between joy and despair, we yearn for the fulfillment of God’s desire beyond the brokenness and neediness of this life.  Let us go to God in prayer for the transformation of the church and the world.  The Lord be with you . . .    

                 Gracious God, the author of salvation, we give you thanks for Jesus Christ, our Lord, who came in your name and turned the lonely way of rejection and death into triumph.  Grant us the steadfast faith to enter the gates of righteousness, that we may receive grace to become citizens of your heavenly kingdom.

            Holy Father, who gave his only son so that we might find life and live it abundantly, awaken in us the humility to serve wherever creation is broken and in need.  By your Spirit, call us into the world as a holy people, dying to the things which separate us from your love, and being raised with the abundance and joy of hope and peace.  Through humility let us crucify our pride.  Through simple living let us crucify poverty.  Through solidarity let us crucify suffering.  Through faith let us crucify despair.

            Sovereign Lord, everlasting and almighty, in your tender love for your children, you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility:  Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection.  We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, as we continue to pray saying:

                                                   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

Lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

 For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.