Prayers of the People/Intercession on Protection
Prayer For God’s Help
O God, from whom to be turned is to fall,
to whom to be turned is to rise,
and with whom to stand is to abide for ever;
grant us in all our duties your help,
in all our perplexities your guidance,
in all our dangers your protection,
and in all our sorrows your peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
Augustine of Hippo
Watch, dear Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep [tonight],
and give your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ,
rest your weary ones.
Bless your dying ones.
Soothe your suffering ones.
Pity your afflicted ones.
Shield your joyous ones.
And all for your love’s sake, Amen.
Augustine of Hippo, Evening Prayer, Language adapted for Corporate Worship by Stuart Strachan Jr.
Eternal God, to whom the hidden is as clearly known as the visible: before you your people bow their heads, to you they submit their hard hearts and unruly bodies. Send down blessing from your glorious dwelling on these men and women, lend them a ready ear and answer their prayers. Set them up firmly with your strong hand and protect them against all evil passions. Preserve their bodies and souls, increase their faith and fear and increase ours, through your only Son. Through him and with him and with the Spirit may glory and power be yours, now and always and forever. Amen.
Hippolytus of Rome, Quoted in Walter Mitchell, Trns, Early Christian Prayers, ed., A. Hamman, Longman Green, London, and Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1961.
You are our strength, Lord, we will love you, under the shadow of your wings, protect us. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us, that you may open the eyes of our hearts. We shall call to you with the Canaanite widow, since our souls have been wounded.
“Even the pups eat the scraps which fall from the lord’s table (Mt 15:27).” Speak, health of the world, and our souls shall be healed. Forgive the wickedness of our sin. If we touch the fringe of your garment, we shall be saved from our sins. Amen.
Modernized and adapted for Corporate Worship by Stuart Strachan Jr., Taken from “The Prayers of Moucan”, in Celtic Spirituality (Series: Classics of Western Spiritiuality) Trans., Oliver Davies, Paulist Press, 2000.