Prayer for this Morning (Sunday, October 3)

Prayer for the Morning

In Jesus Christ dead and risen lies our salvation:

let us give thanks and praise!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Alleluia!

HYMN

Living Lord, our praise we render!

His the blood for sinners shed.

In the Father’s power and splendor

Christ is risen from the dead.

Death’s dominion, burst and broken

By that Life which no more dies;

We to whom the Lord has spoken,

One with Christ, in freedom rise.

One with Christ, both dead and risen;

Dead to self and Satan’s claim,

Raised from death and sin’s dark prison,

Life is ours through Jesus’ Name.

PSALM 18:2-7, 17-18

It was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering. (Heb 2:10)

To be “perfect” is to be complete. Through his suffering, Death, and Resurrection, Christ completed our humanity, deformed and stunted as it was by sin. Let us pray for the grace to live in this gift of true maturity, knowing that God will bring it to fullness through our own participation in the mystery of the cross, anticipated and deepened through every Sunday celebration of the Paschal Mystery.

I love you, Lord, my strength,

my rock, my fortress, my savior.

[M]y God is the rock where I take refuge;

my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.

The Lord is worthy of all praise:

when I call I am saved from my foes.

The waves of death rose about me;

the torrents of destruction assailed me;

the snares of the grave entangled me;

the traps of death confronted me.

In my anguish I called to the Lord;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came to his ears.

From on high he reached down and seized me;

he drew me forth from the mighty waters.

He snatched me from my powerful foe,

from my enemies whose strength I could not match.

Glory to the Father….

Word of God (1 Peter 2:21-24)

To this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.

“He committed no sin,/ and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

By the grace of God, he tasted death for everyone. (cf. Heb 2:9)

CANTICLE OF ZECHARIAH

For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. (Heb 12:2)

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;

he has come to his people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty savior,

born of the house of his servant David.

Through his holy prophets he promised of old

that he would save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant.

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham:

to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

free to worship him without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight

all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet

of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,

to shine on those who dwell in darkness

and the shadow of death,

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory to the Father…

INTERCESSIONS

With grateful joy we pray:

R/Lead us to life, O Lord!

For all who suffer:

– grant them the courage of the cross: R/

For all who struggle with fear, doubt, and purposelessness in their suffering:

– illumine them by the light of the cross: R/

For all those who have lost faith under the burden of suffering:

– restore them to life through the cross: R/

(Personal intentions)

Our Father….

God of all the living, you sent your only Son to deliver us from the power of sin and death through the mystery of the cross. Raise us from darkness to light in him, that we may grow into the holiness he won for us by our participation in the Paschal Mystery. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.