Prayers

God is definitely calling you, just as He calls each one of us to service and worship.

Perhaps your calling is in front of you – and it is a case of praying that you may be faithful to it. Perhaps the way forward is unclear – in which case, pray to hear the voice of God’s Holy Spirit and for the grace to respond faithfully and generously.

 

Suggested prayers for Stepping Forward

An Essential Prayer: Ephesians 1: 15-22 – an address by Jo Pearson, priest in charge of Woodhouse, Leeds, given at Step Forward 2013.

An Essential Prayer

Lord, you call us to be story-tellers

Lord, you call us to be story-tellers:
planting your explosive news into our defended lives;
locating us in the script of your human history.

You call us to be trailblazers:
living in your future that we receive only as gift;
subverting the fixed, fated world of low horizons.

You call us to be weavers:
tracing, stretching, connecting the knotted threads;
gathering up unravelling, disconnected lives.

You call us to be fools –
for Christ’s sake: bearing life’s absurdities and incongruities;
puncturing our seriousness and grandiosity.

You call us to be hosts:
welcomers of the sacred, intimate, transfiguring;
lavish celebrants of our communities and homecomings.

You call us to be poets:
artists and illuminators of inner space;
naming, invoking, heralding your ineffable presence.

You call us to be gardeners:
sowers, cultivators, nurturers of fragile lives;
benefactors of your gratuitous harvest.

You call us to be conductors:
celebrating polyphony, coaxing symphony;
orchestrating the praise of your inhabited creation;

Lord, you lavish gifts on all whom you call.
Strengthen and sustain us and all ministers of your church,
that in the range and diversity of our vocation,
we may be catalysts of your kingdom in the world,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

Roger Spiller (1944– )

Father, I know you love me

Father, I know you love me and have plans for me.
But sometimes I am overwhelmed by the thought of my future.
Show me how to walk forward one day at a time.
May I take heart while I search openly, learn all about the choices,
listen to others for advice, and pay attention to my own feelings.
By doing these things, may I hear your call to live a life that will let me love as only I can,
and allow me to serve others with the special gifts you have given me.
I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

All Highest and Glorious God

All Highest and Glorious God,
Cast your light into the darkness of my heart.
Grant me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity, profound humility,
With wisdom and perception, O Lord,
So that I may always and everywhere
Seek to know and do what is truly your holy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)

All Highest and Glorious God

All Highest and Glorious God,
I abandon myself into your hands.
Do with me whatever you will.
Whatever you may do I thank you.
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me and all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul.
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart.
For I love you Lord and so need to give myself,
surrender myself into your hands without reserve
and with boundless confidence
for you are my Father.
Amen

Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)

Step Forward 2024 – 23rd March 2024

10.30am to 4.30pm

Bishopthorpe Palace, York, England YO23 2GE

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