PARISH INTERCESSION
Sunday 25th August Trinity 10
Lord of heaven and earth, as Jesus taught his disciples to
be persistent in prayer, give us patience and courage never to lose hope, but
always to bring our prayers before you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
As a corporal act of mercy, please offer the following
topics for prayer this week:
Diocese of Edinburgh, Espoo (Finland), Anglican Church of
South America and all their Archbishops, Bishops and clergy.
Justin our Archbishop, John our Bishop, Graham the Bishop of
Dudley, for Nikki our Archdeacon, Andrew our Rural Dean, our Parish Priest
Canon Sue, Revd Richard Newton, for the Clergy, Readers and Lay-minsters of the
Stourbridge Deanery, our ALM Team and visiting Clergy, the Church Wardens of
our group of Churches; our Musical Directors, Organists and Choir, the
Sidespersons, and our Administrators Christine & Chrissy.
The children, head, staff and governors of our schools.
The homes and families of:
Church Hill, Belbroughton; Odnall Lane, Clent; Stoneybridge, Fairfield
Our village shops and their staff
Workers in local charities
The Mission-Shaped Ministry – see your prayer diaries
We pray for those suffering in body, mind or spirit; may
they know your presence alongside them in their time of need, including: Robert
Davies, Geoff Shilvock, Sheila Gordon, Marian Truckle, Trevor Grove, Nina
Moyes, John and Hazel Smith, Dan Taylor, Jan Woolley
We pray, for those mourning the death of loved ones
especially for the family and friends of Ann Rostron, Sid Mogg, Rita Rutter,
Janet Leeman, Betty Smith, Barbara Baker, John E Tipper, Pat Woodward, Ronald
Hodgetts, Derek Wood, Carole Hodgson, Philip Leise-Pettit, Charles Bayliss,
Margaret Hartle
COLLECT FOR THE WEEK
Let your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of your humble
servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things
as shall please you; 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
READINGS
First Reading: Isaiah 58.9b-14
You shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say,
Here I am. If you remove the yoke from
among you, the pointing of the finger,
the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then
your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday. The LORD will guide you
continually, and satisfy your needs in
parched places, and make your bones
strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins
shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up
the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the
breach, the restorer of streets to live
in. If you refrain from trampling the
sabbath, from pursuing your own
interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honourable; if
you honour it, not going your own ways,
serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you shall
take delight in the LORD, and I will
make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage
of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth
of the LORD has spoken.
Second Reading: Hebrews 12.18-29
You have not come to something that can be touched, a
blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a
trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be
spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even
an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.’ Indeed, so
terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.‘) But you have
come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the
firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the
spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood
of Abel. See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did
not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less
will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! At that time his
voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not
only the earth but also the heaven.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,‘ indicates
the removal of what is shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot
be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot
be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship
with reverence and awe; for indeed our God is a consuming fire.
The Gospel Reading: Luke 13.10-17
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for
eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from
your ailment.’ When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight
and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because
Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days
on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the
sabbath day.’ But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not
each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead
it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom
Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the
sabbath day?’ When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the
entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
This is the Gospel of the Lord