Pastoral Prayer for April 9, 2023, Easter Sunday

Alluluia!

What was dead shall live,

what was forgotten shall be remembered,

for the Lord is risen and walks among us.

Let us confidently bring before God the needs of our world.

Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

God of life, in gratitude and great joy

we praise you for the gifts of Christ’s resurrection.

On this day give us hope, for Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

On this feast day which brings joy to all Christian believers,

may we commit ourselves to work toward the unity of the church,

that Christ’s body may be one, for Christ is risen:

(Christ is risen indeed.)

Honoring the gift of Christ’s risen body may we rise to serve

all those whose needs keep them from seeing themselves

as created in the image of God, for Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

For all who have need of the gift of Easter;

for all who journey from illness to health, from despair to hope,

from grief to consolation, from loneliness to love,

that death may have no more power over us, for Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

For all who journey from illness to death,

that death may have no more power over us, for Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

For all who suffer and all who mourn,

that today the Lord God will wipe away all tears, for Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

May we have the persistent faith of Mary Magdalene

and the surprised belief of Peter and John.

May we long to be God’s sign of love in our world, for Christ is risen.

(Christ is risen indeed.)

God of life, we thank you for the mystery planted in us,

the paradox of life from death

and community from scattered disciples.

We thank you for Christ’s dying which saves us from death

and for Christ’s rising, which brings us life.

We pray, as we live, through Jesus the risen one,

in the power of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.