Second Sunday Of Easter
Worship
Lectionary Worship Aids
Series VI, Cycle A
Object:
Words Of Assurance
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you."
Pastoral Prayer
Eternal God, who holds in your hands the destiny of every living thing, we worship you. Thanks be to you for the note of victory that fills our souls today! Thanks be to you for our living Lord over whom death had no dominion! For the rich heritage of faith that life is ever lord of death, and that love can never lose its own, we give you thanks. Strengthen our believing. Confirm our confidence in you and life eternal.
We thank you for all things excellent and beautiful that make faith in immortality more sure. For our friends who have loved us, our homes that have nourished us, for the heights and depths of the human spirit, full of promise and prophecy, for all victories of right over wrong, and above all for Christ, who has brought life and immortality to light, we give you thanks. Join to our company today those whom we have loved and who live with you in the house not made with hands. Gather us into the fellowship of your Church, both militant and triumphant, as we sing our praise to you.
We pray for those defeated souls to whom the note of victory sounds distant and unreal. You see them here, known to you, not to us, spirits frustrated by circumstance, overwhelmed by temptations, facing griefs too heavy for their unaided strength. O Lord, who can make the barren place rejoice and the desert to bloom like the rose, redeem some stricken souls here from defeat to victory.
Replenish with new hope all who are discouraged about the world, who find faith in the ultimate victory of righteousness difficult. So often might triumphs over right, and the good is undone by evil that, like our Master on his cross we cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" O God, to whom a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night, speak to us and refresh our souls with a new hope. Lift our vision above the immediate. Say to us this Easter season that no Calvary can finally defeat Christ. May Easter not represent to us only an historic victory, but may it mean a present triumph in our souls -- the living Christ our inspiration and our strength, so that we live, and yet not we, but Christ lives in us, the hope of glory. In that sustaining faith, may we, too, like our Master, overcome the world. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.
Benediction
Go in peace, be alert to the presence of the living Christ, and the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon you. Amen.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you."
Pastoral Prayer
Eternal God, who holds in your hands the destiny of every living thing, we worship you. Thanks be to you for the note of victory that fills our souls today! Thanks be to you for our living Lord over whom death had no dominion! For the rich heritage of faith that life is ever lord of death, and that love can never lose its own, we give you thanks. Strengthen our believing. Confirm our confidence in you and life eternal.
We thank you for all things excellent and beautiful that make faith in immortality more sure. For our friends who have loved us, our homes that have nourished us, for the heights and depths of the human spirit, full of promise and prophecy, for all victories of right over wrong, and above all for Christ, who has brought life and immortality to light, we give you thanks. Join to our company today those whom we have loved and who live with you in the house not made with hands. Gather us into the fellowship of your Church, both militant and triumphant, as we sing our praise to you.
We pray for those defeated souls to whom the note of victory sounds distant and unreal. You see them here, known to you, not to us, spirits frustrated by circumstance, overwhelmed by temptations, facing griefs too heavy for their unaided strength. O Lord, who can make the barren place rejoice and the desert to bloom like the rose, redeem some stricken souls here from defeat to victory.
Replenish with new hope all who are discouraged about the world, who find faith in the ultimate victory of righteousness difficult. So often might triumphs over right, and the good is undone by evil that, like our Master on his cross we cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" O God, to whom a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night, speak to us and refresh our souls with a new hope. Lift our vision above the immediate. Say to us this Easter season that no Calvary can finally defeat Christ. May Easter not represent to us only an historic victory, but may it mean a present triumph in our souls -- the living Christ our inspiration and our strength, so that we live, and yet not we, but Christ lives in us, the hope of glory. In that sustaining faith, may we, too, like our Master, overcome the world. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.
Benediction
Go in peace, be alert to the presence of the living Christ, and the blessing of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon you. Amen.
