Prayers of the People

O God, Creator of all things, these five confirmands for whom we pray to you are all fearfully and wonderfully made by your loving power.  You have blessed them, each in a particular way, with imagination and curiosity, with gifts and abilities, with passions and dreams.  You have crafted no others like them in all of your realms of existence.   Continue to work powerfully in their lives, strengthening them, uplifting them, rooting and grounding them in your unshakeable Being.   Help them, every day, to grow more and more into the people that you created them to be.  Ever open their hearts to perceive and cherish your loving presence in all that you have made.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

O Jesus, our Teacher, our Friend, our Lord, you walk beside us each step of our life’s journey.  And you stand before us, beckoning us to learn, to understand, to follow you in everything we do.  Be a close and trusted companion to Brody, Carter, Milli, Rocky, and Ryder in their pilgrimage of faith.  Let them know that they are loved and accompanied and never left alone.  Teach them to know you and to walk in your ways - to choose good and not evil, service and not selfishness, to stand in solidarity with all who suffer, and to pursue that peace, justice, and reconciliation which you embody in the Gospel and upon the Cross.  Lead them to find in your holy way, O Lord, none other than the path to meaningful life and indestructible joy.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

O Holy Spirit, you are the fire of love burning in the deep heart of all things whose light shines with the brightness of unending day.  Enkindle in the hearts of these five persons - and in all our hearts - the love with which you lit the stars in the sky.  Breathe in their every breath, O Breath of God, and inspire them to live courageously and faithfully, and to channel their gifts in your service and in service of those around them.  Sustain them day after day and give them inquiring and discerning hearts, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.  Hold us to our vows as your holy Church, to support these persons in their life of faith - to be friends and teachers, sources of support in sorrow and trial, sharers in triumph and in joy.  Enfold them in that great Trinitarian community of love and in that communion of holy ones which knows no ending.

God in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

I invite you into a period of silence now in which you are encouraged to share your prayers for the confirmands, either silently or aloud.

(Silence)

Almighty God, we thank you that by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you have overcome sin and brought us to yourself, and that by the sealing of your Holy Spirit you have bound us to your service.  Renew in these your servants the covenant you have made with them at their Baptism. Send them forth in the power of that Spirit to perform the service you set before them; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Book of Common Prayer

Amen.