Prayer for Today

 1. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

 3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

 4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

 5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

 6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

 7  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

 8  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

 9  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Amen

Our Father in heaven

Hallowed be your name.

Thank you that today I can lift up my eyes and can see you glory - in the quietness and emptiness of the sky. It speaks of your beauty, it speaks of our loneliness without you; it speaks of your love to us for you who made the beauty of the universe have come to us in the beauty of Christ

Your kingdom come

Today, you have granted the skies a Sabbath rest - and our souls in England are quieter. The pressures of life are remved as I look up. But I remember those caught in the chaos of returning home for whom there is little quiet. May your help come to those who are longing for home.

Your will be done, on earth as in heaven

You have granted the heavens rest; may our lives in this world be more at rest. We have busied ourselves to fill the emptiness of life without you. May we discover that in the calm you are there, waiting to be invited to journey with us.

Give us this day our daily bread

May we trust you for today's needs. We have taken you for granted but as we hear of flowers rotting and of emptying shelves in supermarkets we just, just begin to know the anxiety of those who live every day not knowing where their next meal is coming from. So we remember all those who have to trust you for their next meal and are richer for it.

Forgive us our trespasses

Forgive us that we have lived of tomorrow's resources. We have borrowed from our futures; we have borrowed from our children and grandchildren, and they will live in debt to the generation who 'have never had it so good'. And our greed has come back to haunt us as our savings are worthless and our banks bailed out. Lord, have mercy.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

We live with the scandal of so few who are wealthy and so many who are poor; and yet even most of our poor live as kings compared to the rest of the world and compared to  our fore-fathers. Deliver us from the temptation of wealth.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours...

Mr Brown, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg come and go... May we acknowledge that as we cast our votes and may we lift our eyes to see what really matters in yoiur world. And as you have made us face reality in the debt crsis and ash cloud, thank you that we live in a nation where there is a 'reckoning' for all who lead and they are answerable for their use or abuse of power. Thank you for the gift of democracy, which means we can hold our leaders to account. Help us to take our role seriously.

For ever and ever. Amen.

But your kingdom lasts for ever.

 1. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

 3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

 4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

 5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

 6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

 7  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

 8  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

 9* O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Your kingdom lasts for ever! Amen