Prayer of Intercession

Sunday, 24 April, 2016

Hope S. Antone

For our Intercession, I invite you to affirm with me after each prayer. So when I say, “Lord in your mercy,” please join me in saying, “hear our prayer.”

Holy God, we come before you partly out of habit, but mostly because of our need for you. Through Christ, you teach us your will to love all people as neighbors, not only with words of comfort, but with acts of love. Seeking to be true friends of all, we offer now our prayers on behalf of the church and the world.  Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Almighty God, we come in awe at the beauty and wonder of your creation. Yet we do not understand why calamities and disasters happen. We lift to you the victims of recent earthquakes. Guide and strengthen the relief workers as they serve the affected communities despite danger and difficulty.  Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Gracious God, we affirm your unconditional love for everyone, whom you created in your own image. Yet we are saddened by the difficult situations faced by those who are forced to flee their homes in search of a better life. We lift to you the migrants, migrant workers, and asylum seekers; the farmers, fisherfolk and other workers who are affected by climate change.

Grant them perseverance; and send leaders who will respond to their needs with justice and compassion. Be with all who work to point to a new heaven and new earth, through fighting poverty, homelessness, discrimination and hostility. May your light and love shine through their service and be a sign of hope for all.  Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Loving God, we pray for our church. May we be known as Christ’s followers by the love and care that we show to one another in our church and with the wider community. We specially pray for those suffering from illness, or undergoing treatment such as little Samuel, Ajmal Samuel, Amor, Revd. Kwok Nai Wang; and other members of our families and communities, whether near or far. We specially remember those who are facing some problems, or who recently lost a dear friend or loved one. We also remember those who have reasons to celebrate in thanksgiving. May their joy be complete in you.  

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Faithful God, we join other Christians all over the world in praying for the countries of Djibouti and Somalia, especially for the tiny Christian minority and the Christian aid agencies who serve there in the midst of great danger and difficulty. We pray for peace among the people to include provision of clean drinking water, food, and nutrition, medication for diseases, home for the refugees, and security for all the people. 

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Living God, receive these prayers and transform us through them, so we may see and understand not only what you do on our behalf, but what you call us to do. We do this in the name of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who taught us to pray, saying:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. 
Forever.   Amen.

Prayer of Intercession

Sunday, 17 April, 2016

Ramon Bultron

LET US PRAY.

Dear God, You are the source of our life. You have adopted us in the waters of baptism and made us your own in love. May we embrace our lives and the lives of others with courage and compassion, unafraid of joy and pain, sickness and health. May your care be made known in our care.

We pray for our troubled world, wandering in the excruciating twilight of an uncertain peace. In our hearts we know that this is no true peace – rather suspicion and fear, animosity and greed. We ask that Your Spirit will strive mightily with the leaders of the nations as they seek a formula by which the peoples of the earth can live at peace with one another.

Our Father, grant that the promised day may soon come when culture and learning, education and compassion, shall again light all lamps that wars have extinguished; when all wanderers can return to their homes; when all of us may be united in our quest of building a better world.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that love and peace are fruits of righteousness.

In particular, we pray for the farmers of Kidapawan City in Mindanao, Philippines. They were victims of drought and hunger. But instead of responding to their needs, their protest actions were forcibly dispersed and they were fired by live bullets by local police. We pray for the souls of the farmers who immediately died of gunshot wounds and for the 78 farmers who were arrested, jailed and now facing court trials. We pray that they will be given justice and that your grace O'God shine upon this poor farmers who remain to be victims of injustices.

We also pray for the people of countries in conflict such as Burma, Philippines, Nepal, Syria, Libya, Iraq and other countries in conflict in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America, we pray for your heavenly grace that brings genuine peace and democracy to shine upon your Children.

O'God, we pray for the recent earthquake victims and the families who loss their loveones in the recent quake at Kyushu Island, Japan. We also pray for the quake victims that struck some parts of South Asia such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, India as well as in Myanmar where tremors reached some parts of India, Nepal, China and Tibet. Our gracious God, let the holy spirit shine upon the quake victims and that they may find ways to rebuild their shuttered homes and for their immediate recovery.

Dear God, we continue to pray for all the victims of Zika virus. May they be healed and well taken care of. We also pray for the safety of medical professionals and may your grace help them find effective measures to stop the spread of the virus.

We pray for the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and elsewhere so they will find ways to face the challenges of being discriminated and experienced racist hatred in their daily lives. May the people who caused this indifferences, may open their minds and hearts so they can see the sufferings of these people around them and may they open their arms to embrace and share love with the marginalized people in our society.

We also pray for Almond for his new journey in life and wish him your continued blessings and success in life.

We also pray for Amor and Edwina and please remember Ajmal Samuel for his immediate recovery and Jessica who is expecting her new born baby this week. Let us pray for those who are caring for loved ones at home.

In the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, we pray for the people and churches of Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan.

O'God, with your love and compassion, hear the prayers of your people. Enliven us, by your Spirit, to live into the fullness of your reign. We pray through Jesus, our life, our hope, saviour and liberator.

AMEN.

Prayer of Intercession

Sunday, 10 April, 2016

Sunita Suna

God of the poor, friend of the weak,

We bring to you the struggle and sufferings of thousands of poor farmers of Kidapawan City, in the Philippines. We are angry and outraged of the violent attacks on innocent farmers by the Philippine police and military, who were making just demands to the government authorities to provide food for their starving families. The farmers have been suffering since the end of last year as drought hit the region  and have destroyed their crops.  We uphold the families who lost their members and those were injured during the police firing. God, our faith has challenged us as we witness the violence meted out on poor farmers. We as followers of Christ share the good news with the poor about Jesus feeding the 5000 hungry people. In contrast, today bullets and violence are fed to the 5000 hungry farmers - women, men and children when they ask for what is rightfully due to them from the Philippine government. We stand in solidarity with the farmers and continue to seek your guidance and strength to protest against state-sponsored violence towards poor communities. God, we are thankful to the concerned individuals, civil society, people's movement and Churches who came forward to rescue the farmers and shelter them in their sanctuary. May you continue to inspire and strengthen us to bring well being to the farmers community.

God of Life,

We are deeply saddened to know the heart-rending news of a fireworks tragedy at a Temple in Kerala, India killing more then 100 people and more then 200 people were injured. The devotees were gathered to celebrate a local New Year festival at the temple when this unexpected firework exploded. We uphold the bereaved families who lost their loved ones and people who were injured in our prayers. May you console the bereaved families, and provide the much-needed strength to the people who are involved in rescue operation and the doctors, nurses who are treating the injured.

God of love, and compassion

We pray for the 800 Boko Haram fighters, who have surrendered in the last few weeks as part of Operation Safe Corridor. This aims to rehabilitate those who have turned away from the group, helping them to de-radicalize their thinking, providing skills training that will enable those returning to society to find work and make a living. With such a scheme in place, we hope and pray that there will be an understanding on all sides, and people will accept them in their community and give a chance to these men and women to transform their lives to love and protect life around them. We continue to pray for those who were taken by the group that they will soon be returned to their families.

God of refuge,

We uphold Pope Francis in our prayers as he plans to visit the Greek Island of Lesbos this month. He will  meet the migrants stranded on the Island; many of those are Syrian refugees. They like the thousands of other migrants have left their home under very traumatic circumstances and now find themselves in equally difficult situations in a foreign country. The Pope’s visit is an expression of his concern towards Europe’s handling of the crisis and seeks to show solidarity with the migrants. May this visit of the Pope truly make a difference and bring peace and reconciliation in the communities and countries where the migrants have taken refuge.

We pray that God continues to inspire Pope Francis to be the prophetic voice to bring changes in the lives of people, in the communities and in the world.

We particularly pray for our brothers, and sisters who have taken asylum in Hong Kong, as there is a growing tension between the government authorities, the asylum seekers/ refugees and ethnic minorities. God we seek your intervention to understand the differences and help us to create space for people who need to be heard and embraced. We also pray for the Hong Kong government to handle the crisis with care and in a just manner.

God of Justice

We remember the common people in Hong Kong, as the need for affordable housing by Hong Kong’s public increases daily. The government is forecasting a shortfall of 25,000 public housing units in its decade-long supply target. According to the government the blames lies with those in the community who oppose the building of public housing besides a basic lack of land. We pray that the government understands the suffering of ordinary people and prioritizes to invest in affordable housing for people to do justice to the ordinary people to protect their basic rights to have proper housing and live in dignity.

God of wisdom

We pray for the thousands of Secondary pupils appearing for their exams, that God may be with them and bring peace to their hearts and minds in a time of stress and high pressure. We pray that God will guide them with wisdom as the young students pursue their studies to fulfill their dreams. We also remember the students and bereaved families who lost their children during the Ferry Sewol tragedy as we commemorate the 2^nd anniversary of the tragedy this month. May God console the families and the students who continue to struggle to overcome the trauma.

God the healer

We bring to God those in our community in need of our prayers. Particularly we remember those who are ill at home or in a hospital. We pray for little Samuel as he continues with his treatment in QE, and we remember Ajmal Samuel recuperating after surgery. We pray for Revd Kwok Nai Wang as he continues to recuperate at home. Let us also pray for those who are caring for loved ones at home.

In the ecumenical prayer cycle we pray for the people and Churches in the Philippines, Indonesia and Timor Leste.  We ask this prayer in the name of our liberator Jesus Christ- Amen.