On the Lord’s Prayer

Lord's Prayer
Prayers inspired by the Lord’s Prayer – click to download the booklet

I recently had to collect some prayers based around the Lord’s Prayer; some I sourced elsewhere, some I wrote myself. They are gathered together under the stanzas of the Prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven

A Prayer to God our Father
Lord God, Jesus taught us to call you Father. Help us to grow in our understanding of you, that we may better each day learn to trust you, and to love you.

Remind us of the thrill a toddler feels when being swept up securely in a father’s arms; help us share in the glee of a child playing pranks with a parent.

As we feel the lifting angst of the teenager taking insoluble homework problems to a parent who can unlock answers; and the adrenaline rush of the learner driver discovering new skills with dad, so may we feel our relationship with you broadening, enriching and deepening.

Father God, may your love for us be reflected back in our love for you. Amen.

A Father’s Prayer
Lord, I need your special care. Like your earthly father, Joseph, I want to do God’s will, even if I may not always understand. Make me gentle and self less in the care of my family and children; help me guide them in the toils and troubles, the happiness and wonders of this life.

Like my father in heaven, Make me strong in love and forgiveness for those you entrusts to my care.

No one can do these things right Lord, without your constant help and boundless mercy. Be with me always, and may I come to you in heaven, and all my family with me. Amen. Victor Hoagland C.P.

A Prayer For God’s Family
Lord, you call us you children. Families sometimes have some tensions, but often have such fun, and develop deep ties of love that are life-long. Help us to recognise the family resemblance in those you have placed around us in our spiritual family, seeing more of you in our brothers and sisters in Christ each day. Amen.

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thrice Holy
Holy, Holy, Holy
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Holy, Holy, Holy
You are bathed Lord God in awesome majesty,
in the white-heat of holiness.
The Father is Holy,
The Son is Holy,
The Spirit is Holy.
Lest we are consumed whole, burned by your presence, we shrink back.
Yet Lord you reach out to us – it is your finger that touches,
your hand that clasps us to your heart;
Expunging sin, drawing us in, making us completely, wholly holy.
Holy, Holy, Holy.

                                                        The Trisagion
Holy God,
Holy and strong,
Holy and immortal,
Have mercy upon us.
an ancient prayer of the church, three ‘holy’s, in Greek tri agios

What’s in a Name?
‘I name this child…’
‘Name? Rank? Number?’
‘Sticks & stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.’
‘Oi, that’s my name; don’t wear it out!’
‘I have a name, I’m not just a number.’
‘If you know someone’s name, you have power over them…’
‘[Sharpe] by name, [sharp] by nature.‘             [insert names as you choose…]
Lord, you know how important names are, and you know how they can be taken in vain. Jesus, called before birth, Saviour in name and nature; you were named & labelled on the cross, and down through the ages.
Yet at your name Jesus – your name above every name – every knee shall bow. May we live in your name, glory in your name, love in your name, pray in your name. Amen.

Thy Kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

< Less Than, More Than >
Lord of Lords, King of Kings;
reigning in majesty, awesome in authority.
Divine royalty beyond all temporal imperiality,
celestial status eclipsing terrestrial ranking.
All heaven, encapsulated in the Christmas Christ-child,
subject of royal worship;
the full divinity of God residing in this man
whose royal lineage was recognised only in crown of thorns.
Lord, who became less that we might become more,
may we decrease that you may increase.
Come, King Jesus; in heaven, on earth, reign.         cf Phil 2:5-11; Matt 2:11; Jn 3:30

On earth, as it is in heaven?

Lord, will there be football in heaven? Yes?
Will there be chocolate, & dragonflies, & velvet?
But, what? No glorious sunsets?
Because your very presence negates the sun’s existence?
It will be better than sunsets?
What in heaven can be better than sunsets?
Wait and see?
These glimpses from earth aren’t the half of it? It gets better?
Better than the best things I love, and she loves, and he loves?
Even if we love different things? It can still work?
Are you sure? You ARE sure? Amen!

ALMIGHTY God, whose kingdom is ever-lasting, and power infinite: Have mercy upon the whole Church; and so rule the heart of thy chosen servant ELIZABETH, our Queen and Governor, that she (knowing whose minister she is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory: and that we and all her subjects (duly considering whose authority she hath) may faithfully serve, honour, and humbly obey her, in thee, and for thee, according to thy blessed Word and ordinance; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen.      from The Lord’s Supper : 1662 Book of Common Prayer

Give us this day our daily bread.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven –
feed me till I want no more, feed me till I want no more.
William Williams 1745 & Peter Williams 1771

Desert dessert
Lord, they were thirsty and starving.
– Your people; that you led out into the desert.
Yet, in a parched land, you gave them water springing from a rock,
and manna, bread, that tasted like wafers made with honey.
Father, you sustained them with food and water,
refreshing body, mind and spirit.
Where our lives and spirits are hard and dry,
drench with your Spirit, Lord.
And where our minds and souls are empty,
fill us with your Word until we are replete,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

If
Lord Jesus,
You came that all might have life in abundance
When you fed hungry people, everyone ate and had enough.

We know
that there is
enough food for everyone
If we don’t look the other way
If we give the poorest people the power to feed themselves
If we use land for food not fuel
If we stop poor farmers losing their land
If taxes are paid where they are due
So, Lord Jesus,
Direct our attention to see beyond our own needs,
Strengthen the hungry poor and their rights,
Preserve and protect the land that brings forth food,
Contend with us for tax justice, trade justice, environmental justice. Amen.         Christian Aid etc: IF Campaign

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

Sin
Lord I don’t like the word sin.
It’s blunt, and ugly and old fashioned.
People find it offensive and condemning.
‘Trespass’ing is so much less distasteful.
Well, a slight digression, rather than trespassing; just off-course.
How can a gentle meander, a diversion be so abhorrent?
Then you remind us ‘off the path’ on a mountainside can be fatal.
Belittling sin’s awful consequences only hides the reality
of our sin’s offensiveness, to you, and to others;
it condemns us as we stand.
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Amen.

Remember not the sins of my youth,
or my transgressions.
For your name’s sake,
O Lord, be merciful to my sin,
for it is great. Ps 25:6, 10

How many times?
Forgive us, as we forgive them?
Really, Lord?
That sounds like unless I forgive them, then I cannot be forgiven?
That can’t be right, surely?
Well, some of their sins I can forgive them –
but you can’t expect me to forgive everything? On each occasion?
You’ll be asking me to forget them all too next, and leave it all behind!
Oh, you are.
Because, how can I expect to understand the depth of my forgiveness,
the fresh start, and clean break I would hope for,
unless I have first given it to others?
Lord, forgive my impatience, my grudge-bearing,
my inflexibility, and my duplicity.
Forgive my unforgiveness. And then forgive me. Amen.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

First Slip
So innocuous. So insignificant. That first transgression.
A coveted object, that no one will miss, palmed.
Some money, sitting, inviting, glowing
that burns our fingers.
A malapropos thought
that turns into an infelicitous action.
Each with consequences unseen,
with results incalculable
from our first thoughts and actions.
Forgive us, Lord. Amen

From ghouls & ghosties, and long-legitty beasties,
And things that gang bump in the nicht, Good Lord deliver us.
Traditional Scottish Prayer

Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.         Horatio Palmer

Deliver me
Deliver me from evil, Lord.
Release me, Set me free.
Out of the clasp of destruction,
from the cold jaws of death.
Deliver me safe, O Lord.
Enfold, encompass me.
Into the security of your arms,
and the love of your warm embrace. Amen

From the Service of Compline
The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen.
Brethren, be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour : whom resist, stedfast in the faith.             1 Peter 5. 8, 9.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever, Amen.

Think of a number
Think of a number.
Double it. Treble it. Scribble it.
Multiply it by a million, a billion, a gazillion.
We’re still nowhere near ‘for ever’. Or ‘and ever’.
To infinity … and beyond!  is still lightyears away
from the breadth of God’s kingdom,
the height of his power, and the rich depths of his glory!
Almighty and eternal God, for whom the span of history is but a day,
and a split second time-lapses in fractal detail over an age;
the planets and the stars move at your command,
yet the detail of our daily remains your concern.
May we truly make you God over our time, Lord. Amen

Father, our Father in heaven,
 help us to honour your name, keeping it holy.
Come, set up your kingdom,
so that all on earth will follow you,
as you are obeyed in heaven.
Keep us alive with the food we need. 
Keep us forgiven with you; forgiving others. 
Keep us safe from ourselves and from evil.
You rock! You reign! You’re in charge! 
You can do anything you want. 
You are ablaze in beauty.
Always, eternally & for ever.
Yes. So be it. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer, adapted, AMC 2013
with some words sourced from the Contemporary English Version, the New Living Translation & The Message.

Prayers as attributed, or by Alastair Cutting ©2013  www.acutting.org