Love Before Rules: Sixth Sunday of Easter – Year A – Prayer of the Faithful

Suggested response:

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

Introduction:

We bring our prayers to the God whose mercy reaches further than our maps –  into cities we didn’t plan to enter, into lives we thought were beyond the reach of the Good News.

For the Church, in this season of first communions and confirmations: that in the busyness of sacramental preparation –  the rehearsals, the logistics, the photographs –  we take time to pause and ask what space we are actually leaving for the Spirit to move.

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

For all who have drifted from sacramental life because it left no mark on their actual living: that the personal testimony of someone they trust may open a door they thought was closed. May our own stories –  however ordinary, however incomplete –  become the reason someone returns.

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

For those scattered into a situation they didn’t choose –  the displaced, the grieving, the ones whose life went sideways without warning: that they may recognise the Spirit already at work in the detour. The Good News has always travelled through disruption.

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

For our faith community: that we learn to put love before the rules that follow from it –  that we foster belonging first, and trust that faithfulness grows from that root, not the other way around.

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

For ourselves: that we remain connected to the vision board of God’s mercy in our own lives –  the rest, the warmth, the meals, the ordinary moments of having been held. May we know our reason for hope before we need it.

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

For all those suffering from despair, who cannot see the way forward and have stopped looking: may the Good News reach them through whatever hands are available –  imperfect hands, scattered hands, hands that arrived in the wrong city at the right moment.

Reader: Lord, hear us.   All: Lord, graciously hear us.

Closing Prayer:

Lord of the scattered and the found, you do not wait for ideal conditions. You meet us in the cities we fled to, through ceremonies that felt too thin, in the sweatshirt and the meal and the rainy day we were inside for.

Receive these prayers. And where we have not yet noticed your presence –  open our eyes.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

More Resources

The Spirit Does Not Share Our Maps – An introduction to the Spirit of This Sunday

Whose Yoke Are You Actually In?  – A close reading of all four Sunday texts

An Inner Vision Board of God’s Mercy – A guided post-communion meditation