Jesus, You Are Lord – Pentecost Sunday, Year A: Prayer of the Faithful

A Note on This Prayer

The Prayer of the Faithful usually begins: Let us pray for.

This Sunday, we begin differently.

At Pentecost, the Spirit awakens in us the most basic capacity of the Christian life – the ability to say the name. Not as performance. Not as formula. But as the living confession that no one can make except by the Holy Spirit: Jesus is Lord.

Today we do not only ask. We proclaim. We speak the name of Jesus over the broken places of the world – not because we have solutions, but because we have been given a name that is above every name. And having proclaimed it outward, we turn to him directly, in the intimacy the Spirit makes possible, and say what the adopted child says to the one who claimed them:

Jesus, you are Lord.

This is not a small thing. It is the whole point of Pentecost.

Introduction

The Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world. We do not come to this prayer with answers. We come with a name – the name the Spirit has placed on our lips, the name that is the ground of every trust, every hope, every cry. Let us speak it now over the world we carry with us into this place.

Intercessions

For the Church – We proclaim the name of Jesus over every community of faith that has grown tired, institutional, or afraid – over every structure that has forgotten it exists to serve the mission, not to preserve itself. May the same Spirit who broke open the upper room break open whatever has grown closed in us. May the Church be recognised not by its buildings but by its freedom to say the name without embarrassment, in every language, to every person.

Lord, we place our trust in your name. Jesus, you are Lord.

For those who hold power – We proclaim the name of Jesus over the rulers of nations, the framers of policy, the holders of office – over every place where the capacity to shape the lives of millions rests in human hands. May those hands be opened. May the Spirit who was poured out on servants and free alike, on women and men without distinction, disturb every system that mistakes privilege for righteousness and proximity to power for proximity to God.

Lord, we place our trust in your name. Jesus, you are Lord.

For those with abundance – We proclaim the name of Jesus over those whose resources could change the calculus of suffering for thousands – over the boardrooms, the portfolios, the quiet decisions made far from the consequences they create. Not in judgement but in hope: that the Spirit who filled the whole world might fill also the imagination of those with much, until they can see, in the face of the one who has nothing, a brother, a sister, a face that shares their own name before God.

Lord, we place our trust in your name. Jesus, you are Lord.

For the earth – We proclaim the name of Jesus over the ground beneath our feet – over the soil that feeds us, the water that sustains us, the air that carries the breath of God through every living thing. May we receive the gift of seeing the world as the Spirit sees it: already filled, already held, already understood. And may that seeing make us careful, grateful, and slow to take what we have not yet learned to honour.

Lord, we place our trust in your name. Jesus, you are Lord.

For those who feel orphaned – We proclaim the name of Jesus over everyone who has been detached, rejected, forgotten – over those who have been made to feel that they do not belong in the family of God, or in any family at all. Over those for whom the word father carries more wound than warmth. Over those who have been cast out of communities, excluded from tables, told by silence or by violence that they are not included.

The Spirit is promised to all people. All people. There is no asterisk.

There is one Father. One Abba. One who knows your name in your own language, who speaks into your particular hunger, who has not forgotten the specific shape of your face.

God has already signed the adoption letter. It carries your name. It has always carried your name. And the door through which you claim it stands open. May those who have not yet crossed that threshold feel today, through the warmth of this community, the welcome that is already waiting for them.

Lord, we place our trust in your name. Jesus, you are Lord.

For our own communities – We proclaim the name of Jesus over the people we will return to after this Mass – our families, our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, the people whose names we know and whose burdens we sometimes share and sometimes fail to notice. May the Spirit that unlocks locked rooms unlock also the locked places in us – the fear, the distance, the habit of keeping ourselves safe from one another. May we be people in whose presence others feel seen, named, included. May we be, for someone this week, the native language of God.

Lord, we place our trust in your name. Jesus, you are Lord.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, you are Lord of all of this – the broken structures and the abundant tables, the grieving earth and the orphaned heart, the communities we love and the ones we have failed.

We do not speak your name because we have it all together. We speak it because the Spirit has placed it in our mouths and we have learned, slowly, that it is enough.

You are Lord. We are yours. Send us.

Amen.

Usage Notes

Response – Jesus, you are Lord is intentionally in the second person. We are not making a proclamation about him to others. We are turning to him directly, as the adopted children the preface names us. This shift – from he is Lord to you are Lord – is the relational heart of Pentecost Sunday and may be worth naming briefly before the prayer begins.

Introduction – The presider or leader may read the introductory note aloud, or adapt it freely. It is offered as orientation, not script.

In smaller settings – Each intercession may be followed by a moment of silence before the response, allowing the weight of each named reality to settle before the proclamation.

Standalone use – This prayer works outside the Mass context as a Pentecost group prayer, a closing prayer for a community gathering, or a personal prayer of intercession. The response may be spoken aloud alone or held inwardly.

This prayer is part of the Born to Recognise series – an Easter-to-Pentecost journey through the senses toward recognition. The series began with Thomas in the locked room saying my Lord and my God. It ends here, with the whole community arriving at the same place: the second person, the face-to-face, the name spoken directly to the one who gave it.

Jesus, you are Lord.

More Resources for Pentecost Sunday

The Spirit Who Roughens Things: Introduction to the spirit of Pentecost Sunday

The Age of Radical Inclusion: Dive deep into the meaning of Pentecost readings

Let the Senses Pray: Let yourself experience this Sunday.