Prayers for Trinity Sunday (June 7-13, 2020)

The Watchword for the Week:

O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:9

Loving Creator,
We thank you for embedding your image within us at our formation.
Gracious Redeemer,
We thank you for welcoming us home when we have strayed from your intended path for us.
Empowering Spirit,
We thank you for awakening faith in our hearts.

Psalm 8:
1 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Let us confess our sins:

(Adapted from the Trinity Liturgy, MBW 101)

Gracious God, we confess our sin, which separates us from you. We know how people who belong to you should live, but we fail to live that way. At times we have forgotten that we bear your image and have done evil. At times we have forgotten to live in response to your sacrifice for us and have acted selfishly. At times we have ignored the voice of your spirit speaking to our conscience, and we have followed the desires of our own heart. As a result, we have lived for self rather than for you or our neighbor, our lives have been diminished, our witness has been stifled, and your image within us has been tarnished. Forgive us, good Lord, through Jesus Christ. By your Spirit, guide us to live as people who know and love you. Amen.

The Lord, who saves you, says: I am the God who forgives your sins; I do this because of who I am. I will not hold your sins against you. Let us praise the triune God:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.

(Take time to read today’s Daily Texts.  Remember that God speaks to us through the inspiration of scripture, so approach the opportunity to read the Daily Texts as a privilege, eagerly anticipating what might be spoken to you today. How might this new word make a part of your life new again? If you do not have your own copy of the Daily Texts, you will find them posted in the margin on the right of your page (at the bottom of the page if you are on a mobile phone) When you have finished praying, continue as follows.)

Let us affirm our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed:

WE BELIEVE in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

(These petitions adapted from the Moravian Book of Worship, Liturgy for Trinity)

We know God as Father, who seeks loving relationships with all whom he has created.
Like a mother, God has nurtured us all our days and has been near in time of trouble.
We know God as Jesus Christ, the Word who became a human being and lived among us, full of grace and truth.
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is one with God and is at the Father’s side, he has made God known to us.
God created the whole universe through him and for him. Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.
Jesus was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death, even death on a cross.
We know God as the Holy Spirit, who reveals the truth about God.
The Holy Spirit is our helper who stays with us forever.
Because we are God’s children, God sent the Sprit of his Son into our hearts, the Sprit who cries out: Father, my Father.
Like a mighty wind, like a blazing fire, the Holy Spirit comes upon us and fills us with power, making us witnesses for Christ, to the neighborhood, to the nation, and to the ends of the earth.
And now may the love of God, the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
Be with us now and forever. Amen.