Daily Prayers for Holy Week | Good Friday
Posted: April 15, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: holy week, Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Holy Week | Good FridayOver the coming days of Holy Week, we will offer Scripture, prayers for your consideration, and the Lord’s Prayer. We invite you to consider these daily prayers for your journey through Holy Week to Easter.
The prayers this week are adapted from the Benedictine Daily Prayer Book.
Good Friday
Isaiah 53:4-5
4
Surely, he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
Toward mid-afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Isaiah 53:6-7
6
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
I Peter 2:21-24
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
22 “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
For our sake Christ humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross.
When Jesus tasted vinegar he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, de delivered over his spirit.
Pray as Jesus taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy 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 thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Almighty God, you awoke in your Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the desire to be human, without power or prestige in this world. He experienced in his person the cost of such a life, dying like a salve on the cross. Let us, we beg you, recognize in him your power and wisdom. Give us faith, both in you, the living God, and in your power to bring even the dead to life again; today and every day forever and ever.
For our sake Christ humbled himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross.
Daily Prayers for Holy Week | Holy Thursday
Posted: April 14, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: holy week, Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Holy Week | Holy ThursdayOver the coming days of Holy Week, we will offer Scripture, prayers for your consideration, and the Lord’s Prayer. We invite you to consider these daily prayers for your journey through Holy Week to Easter.
The prayers this week are adapted from the Benedictine Daily Prayer Book.
Holy Thursday
Hebrews 2:9-10
9 We do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Merciful God, you have brought us to the threshold of the Easter journey, this time of salvation, so that you might free us from sin and strengthen us in your love. Listen as we pray: Lord, hear and have mercy.
• Lord, make us fruitful members of Christ by renewing in us his Holy Mystery;
• Make us eager for your word by opening our ears and hearts during these sacred days;
• Make us faithful in your service by the common events of our daily lives;
• Make us generous in serving others by our simplicity of life;
• Make us humble and without guile by giving us true knowledge of ourselves;
• And make us bear in ourselves the wounds of Christ by sharing the suffering and pain of your people.
Pray as Jesus taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy 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 thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Daily Prayers for Holy Week | 4-13-22
Posted: April 13, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: holy week, Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Holy Week | 4-13-22Over the coming days of Holy Week, we will offer Scripture, prayers for your consideration, and the Lord’s Prayer. We invite you to consider these daily prayers for your journey through Holy Week to Easter.
The prayers this week are adapted from the Benedictine Daily Prayer Book.
Wednesday of Holy Week
1 Corinthians 1:28-30
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one[a] might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Lord Jesus, for forty days you fasted in the desert and were tempted, yet never sinned. Guard us with your power as we seek to follow you. Hear us as we pray: Lord, save your people.
• Lead your Church to Unity and Peace;
• Bless the efforts of world leaders to bring peace on earth and foster understanding among nations;
• Free all people from bigotry, prejudice and hatred;
• Comfort those who suffer because of injustice, poverty, and sickness;
• Increase the faith, hope, and love of those who are broken and confused;
• Forgive us our sins and keep us from losing heart because of our weakness.
Pray as Jesus taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy 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 thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Daily Prayers for Holy Week | 4-12-22
Posted: April 12, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: holy week, Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Holy Week | 4-12-22Over the coming days of Holy Week, we will offer Scripture, prayers for your consideration, and the Lord’s Prayer. We invite you to consider these daily prayers for your journey through Holy Week to Easter.
The prayers this week are adapted from the Benedictine Daily Prayer Book.
Tuesday of Holy Week
Jeremiah 11:19
But I was like a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
that they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!”
O God, you call us to seek you and the kingdom you have promised. Help us to answer your call with greater zeal. Hear us as we pray: Lord, be gracious and bless us.
• Enliven the faith of all who lead your Church and renew them in their ministry of service.
• Draw Christians together in the bond of peace of love, and make them one in the power of your Spirit.
• Turn us away from our selfishness, and renew our desire to serve you and each other.
• Heal our anguish and pain we have caused others, and forgive our neglect and unconcern.
Pray as Jesus taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy 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 thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Daily Prayers for Holy Week | 4-11-22
Posted: April 11, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: holy week, Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Holy Week | 4-11-22Over the coming days of Holy Week, we will offer Scripture, prayers for your consideration, and the Lord’s Prayer. We invite you to consider these daily prayers for your journey through Holy Week to Easter.
The prayers this week are adapted from the Benedictine Daily Prayer Book.
Monday of Holy Week
Acts 12:26b-30
To us[a] the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. 28 Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. 29 When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead;
Lord God, you brought us out of slavery to sin into the freedom of a new life by the death and resurrection of your Son. Though we have been unfaithful, you wait for us with strong and gentle care. Listen, we pray,
Lord, save your people:
• As we turn away from sin;
• As we turn from selfishness and deceit;
• As we turn away from pride and arrogance;
• As we turn away from anger and hatred;
• As we turn to you in lowliness of heart;
• As we turn to you in worship;
• As we turn to you in love.
Pray as Jesus taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy 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 thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-09-22
Posted: April 9, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-09-22God, there’s a lot of water out there! There’s water that you call us from, nurtured us in, fed us through, wrapped us up in, and water that when the time was just right released us to newness, released us to life, released us to know the experience of pain. We wait on you, God who controls the water. We wait! We wait for the rivers to become calm again. We wait for the streams of peace to drench our feet, our feet as we go forward knowing our steps are ordered by you. God, the water is wide, but your grace to handle it is so much wider! Be with us, God, in the water, be with us, we pray. In the Only name worthy of such praise, we pray. Amen!
(MICHAEL PARKER, Lenten Liturgical Resources from Africana Writers, edited by Safiya Fosua, 2020 at http://www.umcdiscipleship.org)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-08-22
Posted: April 8, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-08-22Lord,
Your church needs You. Help Christians everywhere seize with one accord the mission to go out into all the world to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Your church needs You. Wake us from our slumber and equip us to be the hands and feet of Christ in our communities. Like Christ healed the hurting, fed the hungry, preached good news to the poor, touched the lepers, and ate and dined with sinners, rouse Your church so that we may do the same.
This world needs You. College students struggle with depression. This world is not what they hoped for. Older adults didn’t plan for inflation eating their savings. Wars and rumors of wars speak to the hopelessness of this world. Lord, this world needs the church to be the church, to be salt and to offer the light of Christ. This world hungers for Christians to be Christians. They hunger to see people who forgive wholeheartedly, who love sacrificially, and who put their trust in God alone. Help the church to be like that.
For the world’s sake, for the witness to Christ we bear, help us, O Lord, to be the church You have called us to be at this time. It is in Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
(REV. DONNA PARRAMORE)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-07-22
Posted: April 7, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-07-22Everlasting God,
because of your tender mercy toward all people,
you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ,
to take upon himself our flesh,
and to suffer death upon the cross,
that all should follow the example of his great humility.
Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of his patience
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, U.S.A., 1979, p. 166., ALT.)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-06-22
Posted: April 6, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-06-22Amen! In the name of Jesus we pray! Lent has come in a season when things seem backwards. We are divided, not united; we are walking away from each other, not towards one another; we are trying to talk over our neighbor, not listening to them. So let us recognize our backward state and begin our prayer with an “Amen!” and immediately offer it the name of Christ. Perhaps it will help us realize that faith is the work of going against the grain of society. Faith is the work of turning things right-side-up in an upside-down world. Faith is offering acceptance before knowing if there is agreement. Faith is listening before speaking. Faith is loving before judging. Faith is worshiping you, oh God, and not fretting if we don’t sing our favorite hymn, hear an easy-going sermon, or quickly averting our gaze from you as soon as we leave the sanctuary. Lord, may our Lenten journey be a time of right-sizing our faith. May our self-evaluations come against the example of Christ, and not in how well we are winning the war to be right. Keep our attitudes humble, our hearts open, our hands and feet active, and our minds flexible in the midst of your Holy mystery, oh God of Grace and Glory.
(REV. DR. DAVID O. WEATHERLY)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-05-22
Posted: April 5, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-05-22Loving God, may we reach out with joy to grasp your hand.
If we are honest, we realize that we have been seeking other sources of life.
We recognize our weakness and turn to God for help.
Though our hearts are being opened up to their depths,
though we cry out to God for help, we are not discouraged.
The Lord is near to broken hearts.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress God rescues them.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. Amen.
(REV. NANCY VARDEN)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-04-22
Posted: April 4, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-04-22Oh Lord, Please help me this day. Give me eyes to see how you are at work in every one of my circumstances. Lord, give me perseverance to increase my understanding of you. Give me a hunger to read your Word and to seek to know you more each day. Just as the dawn comes with its exact precision, help me to trust that You will also move in my life, in your perfect timing and in your beautiful way. In your name I pray, amen.
(TIFFANY THIBAULT at http://www.crosswalk.com)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-02-22
Posted: April 2, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-02-22God of the incarnation, you have sacrificed to identify yourself with us; so, inspire us to identify with those victims in our world who need a sense of solidarity.
Amen.
(WWW.PATHEOS.COM)
Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-01-22
Posted: April 1, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 4-01-22Gracious and Loving God,
We pause and bow in our spirits before your great and awesome presence.
We thank you for the gift of this day where we experience the wonders of your glory.
We praise you for a love that won’t let us go, won’t turn us loose, and won’t give up on us.
We thank you for Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
We thank you for the One who is Healer, Refuge, Deliverer, Strength, and Comfort.
We thirst for your presence! Our souls are parched and dry without the anointing that flows from your throne room of grace!
We will bless you as long as there is breath in our bodies, blood coursing through our veins, marrow in our bones and we are clothed in our right minds.
Help us to cling to the hem of your garment for refreshing, restoration, and resurrection that can only come from you.
We remember….and we repent…help us to be reconciled to our brothers and sisters and love them unconditionally.
Fix us and forgive us. Heal us and help us.
We rest our souls in the very palm of your hands…
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
(REV. DR. CYNTHIA DAVIS)
Announcement Regarding Appointments
Posted: March 31, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: appointments, Cabinet, clergy, TWKUMC Comments Off on Announcement Regarding AppointmentsDaily Prayers for Lent | 3-31-22
Posted: March 31, 2022 Filed under: Bishop's Blog | Tags: Lent, Prayer, TWKUMC Comments Off on Daily Prayers for Lent | 3-31-22O God, your glory is always to have mercy.
Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways,
and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith
to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word,
Jesus Christ your Son,
who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, U.S.A., 1979, p. 166., ALT.)