The faith we share affirms that it was ‘for us’ that Jesus Christ ‘became truly human’. So, in faith, when we turn to God and pray through Jesus Christ, we do so knowing that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the life we live.
The life we live today is shaped by particular circumstances that weigh upon us collectively and personally. In the midst of life, we find opportunity and challenge, and we seek to discern the hand of God throughout it all. In the midst of life, we recall that Jesus has shared in our flesh and participated in the life of the world.
The Letter to the Hebrews records: ‘In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears’. (Hebrews 5: 7) In so recording, the Letter affirms that the One who brings us into the presence of God has shared fully in the depths of human experience.
There is no place in our experience at which God cannot meet us. As we cry out to God, the One who hears us is the One who has heard the cries of Jesus Christ.
We pray:
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who prays for us
And who has shared in the life of the world.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
From the depths of our experience
And in the midst of the challenges of our day.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who prayed to You with cries and tears
And hear us when we do so also.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
As we share in the life of the world
And in the depths of its suffering.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
God and Father
Of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hear the prayer we offer
In the name of the One who for us and for our salvation
Has become truly human and one with us.
Lord, in Your mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Signed by:
- Lord Wallace, Moderator of the General Assembly, Church of Scotland
- Most Rev. Leo Cushley, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Roman Catholic Church
- Most Rev. Mark Strange, Primus, on behalf of the College of Bishops, Scottish Episcopal Church
- Rev. Dr David Miller, Moderator, United Free Church of Scotland
- Rev. Neil MacMillan, Moderator, Free Church of Scotland
- Rev. Paul Whittle, Moderator, United Reformed Church (Scotland)
- Rev. Martin Hodson, General Director, Baptist Union of Scotland
- Rev. Mark Slaney, District Chair, Methodist Church (Scotland)
- Rev. Thomas R. Wilson, Chair, Congregational Federation in Scotland
- Lt. Col. Carol Bailey, Secretary for Scotland, Salvation Army
- Adwoa Bittle, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
- Rev. Ruth Turner, District Superintendent, British Isles North District, Church of the Nazarene
- Pastor Chris Gbenle, Provincial Pastor, Province of Scotland, Redeemed Christian Church of God
- Bishop Francis Alao, Church of God (Scotland)/Minority Ethnic Churches Together in Scotland (MECTIS)
- Rev Fred Drummond, Director, Evangelical Alliance (Scotland)