24B*
A Call to Worship
Lent 6B Palm Sunday 2012
Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29

O Lord, you are our God, and we will praise you!
You are our God, and we will exalt and revere you!

You are our God, and we bless your Holy Name!
You are our God, and you give us the gift of today!

Your are our faithful and loving God, whose mercy
and grace endures for ever - praise be to our God!
Together we come, entering into God’s presence
with joyful songs of praise, to celebrate our Great God. Amen.

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Prayers of Praise and Intercession
Lent 6B Palm Sunday 2012
Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29

“This is the morning the LORD has made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it.” As we gather together to thank and
praise our God, and we rejoice in the beauty of this morning,
and that we have come safely through the night hours.
We give thanks, and bless God’s Holy Name, for the
enduring love and faithfulness of our God that we will all
receive today. We pray for people for whom this day will
bring only pain and sorrow, despair, sadness and heartache.

“This is the afternoon the LORD has made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it.” We give thanks to the Lord our God for
the goodness and mercy we have received this day from God,
and in hope and anticipation, we look to God’s continuing care.
We give thanks that the gates into God’s presence are always
open, and that we can offer our worship and praise of God.
We pray for people who this afternoon will bring stress, anxiety;
unemployment and hunger; homelessness and loneliness.

“This is the night the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be
glad in it.” We praise you for the beauty of the night, when we
are gifted with new expressions of God’s creative mysteries. We
give thanks for those creatures for whom the darkness is their
true environment; and for the night-blooming flowers that scent
the air. In the hours of rest and darkness – be a light to those
who are frightened by the dark and when fears trouble them.
Night time is often the time when hurtful memories come to haunt
us; or when illness disturbs our rest. We pray for people who
work through the night hours; be their light and guide, so that
when morning comes, they may greet the new day with joy.
You are our God, and we praise and exalt you for your goodness! Amen.

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A Personal Meditation
Lent 6B Palm Sunday 2012
Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29

Oh, the joy of free and easy access to God! How wonderful it is to
know that God is always there for me, and that the entrance into
God’s presence is always freely available, and that there are no secret
passwords or security codes required to gain access in to God’s
presence. I am so grateful that God does not ever reject me, or be
too busy to receive my worshipful offerings of praise and thanksgiving.



I am so grateful for the people who have come to me in love and
acceptance, ‘in the name of the Lord’, to help me refocus on higher
priorities, and for all people’s greater good. I have many regrets
however, for the times I have rejected those people who have come
to me ‘in the name of the Lord’, when I have not been ready or
willing to be redirected into other pathways of service. Even as I
reject these words of challenge, I know deep down within me, that
it is really God whom I am rejecting, and God’s messenger has been
blocked in fulfilling their mission because of my wilful stubbornness.



How gracious God is to shine the light of love on me, so that I can
see the way to offer my sacrifices of praise and thankfulness to God!
The radiance of God’s bright light illuminates all my being - physically,
mentally, emotionally and spiritually, so that at least one step ahead
along the way is made clearer to me. Loving God, we ask that you will
indeed bless those who are willing to act on behalf of God in the world,
bringing light and hope to people whose daily life is spent in darkness.

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Acknowledgements:
Unless stated otherwise, all Bible readings and extracts used in these weekly Prayers and Meditations are from
‘The New Revised Standard Version’ Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

*The additional weekly numbering is from the Revised COCU Indexing Scheme
COCU = ('Consultation on Church Union'); as it offers an easy sequential numbering
for the Revised Common Lectionary for the Church Calendar.

If any part of these Prayers and/or Meditations is used in shared worship, please provide
the following acknowledgement:
© 2012 Joan Stott – ‘The Timeless Psalms’ RCL Psalms Year B. Used with permission.

jstott@netspace.net.au

Download/view a pdf file of this document here: palm_sundayb_2012.pdf

© 2012 Joan Stott - " The Timeless Psalms" RCL Psalm Year B