The online home for the Byland Churches
I’ve had a request for more frequent updates on this page. Today I have been experimenting with voice recording. I’d like to invite you to join me in a short service of prayer during the day.
The sound recording is here
If you want to follow along, click on this link to go to the order of service on the Church of England website.
This is the first of my experimental Anytime-Church posts. Click “Mothering Sunday Worship”, above, then the idea is that you read through, clicking on the links to play the music and join in with the singing as you would in Church. At the bottom of the post is the comments box, where you can leave a prayer request or message for others to see. Please don’t use other people’s surnames in prayer requests – God knows who you mean.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Lord be with you
And also with you
We praise you, our God, for all mothers who have loved and laughed and laboured as they cared for their children;
Blessed be God for ever.
We praise you, our God, for all mothers who have wept in sorrow and joy for their children:
Blessed be God for ever.
We praise you, our God, for Jesus, born of a woman and nurtured in her love, and for Mary, a reminder of your patient, waiting love.
Blessed be God for ever.
Keep silence and reflect on the week
Your love gives us life.
We fail to live as your children.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
You call us to do good.
We seek our own good.
Christ, have mercy. Christ have mercy.
You hear us when we cry for help.
We ignore the cries of others.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy
May the Father of all mercies
cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen
For all the bible readings, either use your own bible or click the link to hear the audio version of the whole chapter.
1 Samuel 1: 20-28
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/suchet/nivuk/1Sam.1.20-1Sam.1.28
Start listening at 3 minutes 20 seconds
2 Corinthians 1: 3-7
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/suchet/nivuk/2Cor.1.3-2Cor.1.7
For this passage just listen for the first minute and ten seconds
John 19:25-27
Mothering Sunday means many things to many people: for some it is time to spoil their mothers with cards and presents, for others it is a day of sadness and remembered loss, for yet others it is a day to avoid altogether as the memories are too painful.
This year, Mothering Sunday is like no other in recent memory. For many of us, we are separated from our loved ones, fearful of what is to come and unsure of how to spend the day. Or are you the exception, enjoying the solitude and the lack of fuss?
The question many are asking now, or will do in the coming weeks and months, is where is God in this situation?
With our churches closed for public worship, the obvious answer doesn’t work. God is not carefully shut away in a stone building, allowed out only on a Sunday morning. God is wherever you are today – sitting at the dining table, or lying in bed. God is with his people.
The very short gospel reading today is perhaps more relevant to us today than ever. Jesus, suffering on the cross, turns to the two people he loves the most and makes them into a new family. This Mothering Sunday, it doesn’t seem to matter who you are related to. The people around us in the streets we live on need to be our families. Let Jesus on the cross remind you what love is: a son needing a mother, a mother needing a son, brought together and able to support one another.
The number of people this week who have offered help in our villages is heartening. Everyone seems to want to help those who might be in need.
St Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians seems to be speaking straight to us this week. In a week where all is confusion and apprehension, we can remind ourselves that Jesus is with us in all suffering and that we will be comforted.
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
In these unprecedented times, we can be sure that Jesus is with us. He is with us in the hands of those who help us, in the voices of those who phone, in the smiles of those passing by.
Let us declare our faith in God.
We believe in God the Father,
from whom every family
in heaven and on earth is named.
We believe in God the Son,
who lives in our hearts through faith,
and fills us with his love.
We believe in God the Holy Spirit,
who strengthens us with power from on high.
We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Spend some time praying quietly for each of these groups of people. Add your own prayers in the comments section
Let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
May God, who gave birth to all creation, bless us:
may God, who became incarnate by an earthly mother, bless us:
may God, who broods as a mother over her children, bless us.
May almighty God bless us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
Let
all the world in every corner sing,
my God and King.
The
heavens are not too high,
his praise may thither fly:
the
earth is not too low,
his
praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner
sing,
my God and King.
Let
all the world in every corner sing,
my God and King.
The
Church with psalms must shout,
no door can keep them out;
but
above all the heart
must bear the longest part.
Let all the
world in every corner sing,
my God and King.
Words: George Herbert (1593-1632)
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ, Amen.
Sunday 22nd March 2020
Light a candle at 7pm and pray with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York
“So today we, together with our fellow bishops and other church leaders, call for a National Day of Prayer and Action this coming Mothering Sunday (22nd March) – light a candle at 7pm and put it in your window, ring someone who is isolated and vulnerable; buy an extra item and place it in your local food bank.”
Now go and have a cup of coffee and call someone who you would normally chat to at the end of the service!
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Common Worship, material from which is included in this service, is copyright © The Archbishops’ Council.