Intercessions ~ Pentecost Sunday

On the Feast of Pentecost we pray for the Church and its unity./ We ask for the Church to be a bold witness to Jesus-Risen/ the victor over fear,/ exploitation,/ violence,/ pessimism and alienation./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of Pentecost we pray for our families,/ asking the Holy Spirit to restore us where we are separated from each other./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of Pentecost we pray for those who are Confirmed this year./ We ask the Spirit of Jesus to build them up in faith,/ prayer,/ and an eagerness to serve./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of Pentecost we ask the Spirit of Jesus to melt what is frozen and to warm what is chill within us;/ to transform the Church where we need to learn mercy,/ compassion and love./ We pray to the Lord./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of Pentecost we pray for the lands and peoples of the world,/ remembering today:/ Guyana, Haiti, the Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong and Hungary./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of Pentecost we pray for those who have died/ asking for them to follow Jesus into the Kingdom of refreshment,/ light and peace./ We pray to the Lord.

Synagogue Evening Prayer

THERE ARE GOSPEL SCENES where Jesus is present in the synagogue, the local meeting house of the Jewish community: a place for study, prayer, court and communal gathering. By contrast, the temple was the singular house of worship in Jerusalem where sacrifices took place. Below is a Jewish Evening Prayer prayed in the synagogue. Perhaps Jesus would have heard and prayed a prayer like this:

Grant, O eternal God, that we may lie down in peace, and raise us up, O Sovereign, to life renewed. Spread over us the shelter of Your peace; guide us with Your good counsel; and for Your Name's sake, be our Help. Shield us from hatred and plague; keep us from war and famine and anguish; subdue our inclination to evil. O God, our Guardian and Helper, our gracious and merciful Ruler, give us refuge in the shadow of Your wings. O guard our coming and our going, that now and always we may have life and peace. Blessed be the Lord, Guardian of His people Israel forever. Amen.

In the Room and Days of Waiting

THIS IS SAID TO TO BE THE ROOM of the Last Supper but also the Upper Room of Pentecost. The land site may have some historical connection to those events, but the room itself dates much later to the middle ages - arches such as these had not yet been imagined in Biblical times. No matter really: what signifies is what comes to heart and mind. The prayer prayed in this room grows out of waiting.

The disciples gathered here after Jesus had ascended to glory. Physically gone from them, they must have missed him terribly, recalling the depth of relationship they had shared the night of his arrest, the night before his death.

And in the silence and conversation of those days in the upper room they must have remembered the words Jesus had spoken while he walked with them:

"I tell you truly, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices: you will grieve for a time, but your grief will be turned into joy." 

"...you are sad for a time, but I shall see you again; then your hearts will rejoice with a joy no one can take from you. (John 16:20-23)

The apostles waited in this place from the Ascension to the Pentecost:

Name your upper room:

• The place of fear for the unknown.
• The place which longs to return to what was.
• The place of deeply felt and perhaps shared prayer.

Name your upper room:

• The place which hopes for a bright future.
• The place which aches to be healed.
• The place which awaits resolution.

Name your upper room:

• The place which awaits God's revelation.
• The place of fragile insecurity.
• The place which doesn't do well in alone-ness.

Name the upper room:

• The place which wonders if it was all worth it.
• The place which prays to be able to trust.
• The place of fond remembrance or bitter regret.

Now pray...