PARISH PRAYER/ CaFE PRAYER
 
Father, Pour out your Spirit Upon the people of this parish.
Grant us a new vision of your glory, a new experience of your power, a new faithfulness to your word, and a new consecration to your service, so that your love may grow among us and your kingdom come.
Amen

FAITH IN THE FUTURE PRAYER
 
Dear Lord and Father of us all,
Help me to meet you each day
in the words and deeds of others;
Teach me to listen to you
that I may know your will;
Strengthen me to be
your witness in the world;
Guide with your Spirit
the family of Salford Diocese
to seek your way, your truth, your life.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

CHILD PROTECTION CAMPAIGN PRAYER
 
Almighty God,
Help us, we pray, to mount effective opposition to the Governments policy of providing abortion inducing drugs and devices to children in schools and elsewhere.
 
Lord, we are overwhelmingly outnumbered in our campaign to protect your precious children.
With all the earthly power at their disposal, the Government is pressing ahead with their policy of providing abortifacient birth control to children as young as eleven, without parental knowledge or consent.
 
Without Your help, dear God, we can do nothing but with your intervention, all things are possible. The Government can be defeated, and Your children and Your unborn children can be protected.
 
Lord, we beg You to help our Child Protection Campaign. Help us to alert this nation to the terrible dangers facing our young people in the light of this wicked policy.
 
Lord, we need leaders to run the Child Protection Campaign in every corner of Britain and Northern Ireland: to run meetings, to raise signatures for our petition, and to impress on local schools the true nature of what the Government is asking them to do.
 
Thank You, Lord, for coming to our aid.
We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Your Son.

PRAYER FOR PEACE
 
To you, Creator of nature and humanity, of truth and beauty, I Pray:
Hear my voice, for it is the voice of the victims of all wars and violence among individuals and nations.
Hear my voice, for it is the voice of all children who suffer and will suffer when people put their faith in weapons and war.
Hear my voice when I beg you to instill into the hearts of all human beings the wisdom of peace, the strength of justice and the joy of fellowship.
Hear my voice, for I speak for the multitudes in every country and in every period of history who do not want war and are ready to walk the road of peace.
 
Pope John Paul II

SCRIPTURE
 
Unless a wheat grain
falls on the ground and dies,
it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. (John 12:24)
 
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
 
The upside down face of Christianity is presented to us today. If we want to live, we must die. If we want to bear fruit, we must be planted in the earth. To lead is to serve; to be first is to put ourselves last. What seems like foolishness to many is at the very heart of Lent's wisdom and challenge.