Prayerful Concerns of Our Parish Community – First Sunday of Advent

Welcome to Advent!  We share these Prayers of the Faithful for the 1st Sunday of Advent (Nov 26-27, 2022) for your own prayerful reflection throughout the week.  Lord, hear our prayers.

As we begin this holy season of Advent, we place our confidence in God’s act of love in coming to live among us as one of us. We pray for the gift of hope for ourselves and those we bring before God today. We pray:

For those caught up in wars around the world; soldiers, refugees, and those who hold fast to the reasons for the fighting. We pray to the Lord.

For the homeless, the cold, those struggling to keep a hold of who they are. We pray for those who have a family or homes they could enter but know they are not welcome or safe there. We pray to the Lord.

For those people struggling in relationships, especially at this time when the cracks are kept just below the surface. We pray to the Lord.

For those this Advent and Christmas who may be visiting family in the area, those who for reasons maybe unknown to themselves come to church this year, those who may hope that our parish will be a place of welcome and safety that they have not found before now, we pray that we reach out to them, from the altar and from every seat, say hello to them, welcome them to Christ’s community here. We pray to the Lord.

For the victims of violence in our country, particularly those targeted because of their race, religion or sexual identity. And we pray that public figures – and all of us -put aside hateful speech, for it has caused the deaths of innocent people. We pray to the Lord.

For each of us, that our hearts and minds be touched and changed by the Advent gifts of hope, and the promise of the closeness of a God who loves us. We pray to the Lord.

For all our deceased loved ones, and those who knew little love in this life, that they all be enfolded in your light and joy. At this liturgy we especially commend:
4:30 PM William & Michael Jennings by the Jennings Family
7:30 AM Maud (Mitiz) Rumo by The Family
9:30 AM For the People of the Parish, Living and Deceased
5 PM Leon Moreland by Dottie Alward
We pray to the Lord.

Into the mess of this world, a fragile child will come – yelling in the night for his mother, needing milk and clean linen. We pin our hopes on you, little baby, our God. In this birth our God is with us and our hope is reborn.