Bless the Lord

Psalm 113

God the Helper of the Needy

​Praise the Lord!

Praise, O servants of the Lord;

praise the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord

from this time on and forevermore.

From the rising of the sun to its setting

the name of the Lord is to be praised.

The Lord is high above all nations,

and his glory above the heavens.

Who is like the Lord our God,

who is seated on high,

who looks far down

on the heavens and the earth?

He raises the poor from the dust,

and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

to make them sit with princes,

with the princes of his people.

He gives the barren woman a home,

making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

Invitation

This is Christ's table where all are welcome

Those who are full of praise

Those who are full of woe 

Those for whom life brings joy

Those for whom life brings challenge

Whoever you are 

Whatever you face

Christ meets you here offering love and grace

Come to Christ's table knowing Christ welcomes you here.

Narrative

Christ walked with friends and strangers

along dusty roads and rocky shores

on beaches and hillsides

At bedsides and gravesides

He taught and healed, laughed and cried

Lifted people up or got down beside them

And, on the night he was betrayed,

he gathered some of those friends

around a table in an upper room. 

He washed their feet and taught them to serve

He fed their minds and bodies and taught them to share.

He took bread, blessed it and broke it, and told them:

This is my body broken for you.

And then he took a cup and told them:

This cup symbolises a new beginning with God 

made possible because of my death. 

Do this to remember me.

And so we take this bread and this cup 

and we give thanks to God for these symbols of grace.

Let us pray

Thanksgiving

God, like the Psalmist we praise you today

because you accept us just as we are.

The rejoicing and the grieving

Those who are content and those who are restless

Those who find life easy, those who find life hard

You know us and love us and hold out your arms in welcome.

And so we come, some with faltering steps, some at a run 

some in our own time, some dragged along by others.

We come and find you waiting on us.

As we bask in your welcome we bring with us

all who need to be fed today

Those hungry for love

Those hungry for knowledge

Those hungry for justice, those hungry for peace

Those hungry for shelter, those hungry for status

Those hungry for stability, those hungry for family.

At your table there is room for all and enough for all.

Those of this world- and the next.

And so we thank you that you call us sons and daughters.

You lift us from the places we have been and open up for us new horizons.

Send your Spirit on these symbols that we use here.

May our hearts and minds be open wide in wonder that such love and grace

And mercy and forgiveness is crammed into a sip of wine and a cube of bread.

And as we share together may we know at your table 

there is room for us and room for all.

And may we bless your name forevermore.

Amen

Fraction

In this bread, we know Christ's body broken for us

We share the feast together

In this cup we know a new relationship with God

We do this to remember him

Prayer after Communion

God we have been fed at this table

We have been nourished and encouraged

We have been cradled in caring and lifted in love

Help us now to go into all the world sharing the gifts we have been given

until all your world is fed.

Knowing your grace in simple things, may we simply live to hand on your love

as you have handed it to us.

May we carry your very self in us so that all may see you

 the God of the Universe making your home with us

Bless the Lord O my soul.