Lent 1 – katyandtheword

Lent 1, Teach Me to Pray/Give Your Heart to God

Lent 1 Themes: Call to Worship, Being Present with God
Prayer is being particularly present with God, Taking Sabbath is taking stock, and resting in the grace of God

Matthew 12:1-8 or Mark 2:23-28
Psalm 122

Breath Prayer

Inhale:God is here
Exhale: I am here

Inhale: I am
Exhale: We are

Call to Worship
Praise God for we are bound together
We are present with God when we pray
We are called to be together in this space
We are called to be a Sabbath people
Come let us rest in prayer
Come let us enter the House of Prayer, and take rest

Call to Worship
Our Feet are standing in your gates
We long to be present with you God
We pray for peace
Peace within and peace without, so that we can be present
Help us to be fully present here today
Let us give thanks to God
I was glad when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord
Come let us go, and be present in the house of the Lord

Call to Confession: God invites us in to the house of God with open and welcoming arms, and invites us to lay down our guilt along the way. Let us do that now together.

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that when we hear the Call to worship, we are hesitant. We do not always feel your house as a place of peace, or a sanctuary. Too often it is a duty, a chore, or an item on the checklist. We do not always see it as a place to simply be. Help us to experience the call to worship as an invitation to simply be human in your presence, and to know your belovedness we pray. (Silent Confession) Amen.

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that we do not always hear the call to prayer. What is this prayer thing anyway? Is it praise? Lament? A conversation with God? We confess that we find the concept confusing. Teach us to pray God, to rest in the knowledge that you accept all offerings, and that any sacrifice of prayer is acceptable to you, and allow us to find prayer as a form of sanctuary we pray. (Silent) Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God loves us and forgives us, embracing us and calling us beloved no matter what state we are in, therefore we can be assured of the truth In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us remember that God is calling us to worship, because God loves to spend time with us. God gives us an open invitation. Let us go into the world, bolstered by God’s invitation to spend time with the Divine, knowing we can rest in God’s bosom, no matter what, and let us tell other’s of God’s extravagant hospitality as we go. Amen.

Prayer Activity: Meditation is being present and letting thing go: Ways to practice meditation: Coloring as Prayer: https://prayingincolor.com/ways-to-pray-in-color Particularly, Spending Time with God in Prayer

Click to access holy-thursday-2021.pdf

Click to access lent-calendar-2018-cross.pdf

Click to access lent-calendar-2018-lily.pdf

Teach Taize singing as Prayer “Bless the Lord My Soul” information about prayer https://mcgrathblog.nd.edu/how-to-pray-with-taizé-music

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Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

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Brown, Black and White hands encircling each other, surrounded by hearts

Narrative Lectionary, Year 2, Lent 1

Mark 10:17-31 Rich Man sell all
Psalm 19:7-10

Kneeling with Christ
The Promise of a New Kin-dom
Breaking [A World Beyond] Capitalism

Feel free to Email KatyandtheWord at Gmail for Text version for easy Copy/Paste Formatting
Suggested Donation for entire Liturgy $75
(you can decide what is fair for portions)
Receipt Available upon request
Please give credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

Venmo @Katy-Stenta (last four 7841), Paypal @KatyStenta, Google Pay Katyandtheword@gmail.com, Cash App $bookkats
GoFundMe

Lent 1: Serving God, Journey & Change

Breath Prayer Option
Breathe in: Jesus I will serve you
Breathe out: Jesus I will follow you

Call to Worship
Jesus we are following you into Lent
Your laws are perfect, so we follow you
Jesus we long to love and serve like you
Here we are, starting the journey into Lent, Journey with us God
Come let us journey with God
Come, let us make space for this holy time together.

Call to Confession
Jesus calls us to follow him, because we are heavy burdened, let us lay down what we are carrying to God, so we might find rest

Prayer of Confession: God we know that what you have to offer is more desirable than God and sweeter than honey, but we confess that we are not ready to give up all of our possessions and follow you. We confess that we find the idea of changing everything, difficult. We confess that we are uncertain, sometimes, what following you even means sometimes. Forgive us when we are afraid, teach us how to serve beside you in ways that are life giving and hopeful we pray. In the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: Hear the Good News: Jesus promises that he is preparing a way full of grace and mercy for us, so we can be assured of the good news, In Jesus Christ we are forgiven, Amen.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Let us go forth proclaiming the good news, that faith is not about who is first or who has the most. It is not even about being perfect. For it is God who will teach us to serve, and we will carry that throughout the world. Amen.

Hymn Suggestions: They will Know We are Christians By Our Love, I Wonder as I Wander

Taize Option: Veni Sancte Spiritus

Children’s Activity: Play Simon Says, Stoplight, Duck Duck Goose depending on Ages, talk about how these games who wins “it” the person in control, how you lose, and then play them backwards, where the loser WINS

Children’s Book:The Goblin and the Empty Chair https://www.amazon.com/Goblin-Empty-Chair-Mem-Fox/dp/1416985859 Talk about about how the disciples fought over where to sit as opposed to the empty chair where welcome was made for the Goblin

Entire Liturgy

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A circular wooden table with wooden chairs, above is the Holy Spirit dove with a circle of arrows pointing everywhere

Lent 1 Topical Prayer

Topical Prayer: Holy God, we confess that it is much easier to see your holiness in other places—beautiful countrysides, exciting trips to lands that we deem exotic, pristine and well kept buildings. It is harder to see God in the neighborhood. We know it’s flaws too well—we are too familiar with it. Who is my neighbor God? Anyone who is close enough to annoy us. Because if they are close enough to annoy us, then we are are close enough to love and help them. You are the God who is in the details, in the dusty and complicated relationships of those closest to us. In the vast outreaching arm for those far away that we feel compassion for. Truly, you are the God that creates neighbors, even between the competing religions the Samaritans and the Hebrew Jews, the Muslims and the Christians, the black churches and the white churches. Help us to be in true conversation and relationships with one another. Because that is the only way we are getting through this. Teach us to be neighbors we pray. Amen.

For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy

Lent 1 Prayers

Journeying Past Our Neighbors

February 21st

Lent 1

Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-42

Psalm 15

Call to Worship:

God you call us to love

We would like to abide in your tent God.

You call us to our neighbors and our neighborhood. Because you are present here, too.

Let us praise the God who is in our neighborhood.

Invitation: Come let us confess our full selves to the Lord.

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that although we strive for love, we do not always achieve it. We catch ourselves gossiping or slandering others, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are too worried about who is going to get in first, to help those who are last. Help us to be like the good Samaritan, to take the time and energy to help all those in need without prejudice or malice. Embolden us to do what is right, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God promises that we can dwell with God’s very self on the holy hill. Through grace, is space in God’s neighborhood. Those we can tell one another the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Amen.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Lord, help us to face and see our neighbors: black, brown, white, immigrant, disabled, our LGBTQIA neighbors. Let us embrace those who vote, pray or live differently. For each individual is fully human and beloved by God. Help us to love them we pray. amen.

Communion Prayer; Lord come and bless this food of the people and this cup of the people that we might taste and see the kindom in our neighbor’s eyes and be nourished to start the work of the kindom in our own neighborhood—knowing that we are all seen and loved in the eyes of God let us start to celebrate it here, today, by taking communion together.

Hymns: Kum ba Yah, Jesu Jesu Fill Us with Your Love, Somebody’s Knocking at Your Door

Taize: Let All who are Thirsty Come

Ash Wednesday Topical Prayer

Topical Prayer

Lord, you are the God of Ashes. So that when food tastes like dust upon the tongue, When we feel grubby and soiled, when we feel defeated—you’ve already been there. taking the long walk to death, walking grubby, dry-mouthed and alone. And you invite us, each and every year, to take the journey with you, so that neither of us are alone. You invite us to walk in our own stumbling way, with our own deaths. And you remind us—that we are but dust and to dust we will return. And it’s good to remember and process that fact. Because though we are dust, we are also the beloved siblings of Christ. And so, we will walk the path to Jerusalem together, because it is a journey worth taking. Be with us and we journey we pray, O God. Amen.

For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy

Ash Wednesday Prayers

Journeying towards Death

February 17th

Ash Wednesday

Jesus Turns to Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-62

Psalm 5:7-8:

Call to Worship

Who can follow you to Jerusalem Jesus?

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head

God, may we each find a sanctuary space today.

Let us begin the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus Christ today.

The time for Lent and death stretches us before us.

Come let us walk with God today.

Invitation: God will give heed to our sighing, come let us bring our sighs to the Lord.

Prayer of Confession: God our sighs are loud and our cries sound out. We feel trauma of these times. But we know, you long with us for our suffering to end. You do not delight in any wickedness. We confess that we do not know how to journey to Jerusalem with you. We are lost before the journey even begins. Help us to find the way we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God it is through the abundance of your steadfast love, I will enter your house. It is by the grace of God, that we can be assured of the truth: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Lord, let us experience the ashes with all that they entail. Let the be the beginning of our relenting: of power, of materialism, of individual achievement over the good of the community. Let us relent to Lent we pray. Amen.

Communion Prayer: Holy Spirit, come and inspire us for this journey. When it feels like forty days in the desert: fortify us with your bread and your cup. Imbue this meal with your Holy Spirit so we can be nourished for the journey. Remind us that when we celebrate Christ’s death, we are also celebrating his life and his resurrection. Give us what we need for this journey through Lent we pray. Amen.

Hymns: In the Garden, Come Thou Fount of Ever Blessing, What Wondrous Love Is This,

Taize: Jesus, Remember Me

For the Complete List of Narrative Lectionary Lent Resources can be found here including a way to receive a doc copy