Collects for Lent
First Sunday in Lent (Matthew 4:1–11)
O Christ, who entered into the lonely desert,
and who, facing hunger, danger and temptation,
did not turn aside
but affirmed the way of self-giving love,
strengthen us to resist the false attraction of easy answers,
magic fixes,
abuses of power,
and the delusion that there is any way apart from justice
in which God’s justice can be done.
Second Sunday in Lent (John 3:1–17)
O Christ, as you were lifted up upon the cross,
exposed for all the world to see, and sneer, and abandon,
give us courage not to abandon those also exposed
by poverty, unemployment or stigma
to the risk of unprotected living,
and faith to believe that even we
may be born again
in the Spirit of love.
Third Sunday in Lent (John 4:5–42 )
O Christ, as you spoke with the woman at the well
and drank from her cup
to the scandal of your disciples,
because of her indignity,
grant that we who are habitually scandalised
by everyone except ourselves,
may learn from you to refrain from judgement,
to accord respect to all God’s children,
and so be privileged to hear the witness
of those the world treats with indignity.
Fourth Sunday in Lent (John 9:1–41)
O Christ our enlightener,
once and for all,
you broke the link between suffering and punishment,
erased the line between deserving and undeserving
and invited the unseeing to open their eyes to the truth about themselves.
Doing this, you revealed yourself,
became vulnerable.
Preserve us from the defendedness that makes us vicious,
give us insight to see the structures of injustice by which we profit,
and grace to cherish all people in our vulnerability,
knowing that we all live within your love.
Fifth Sunday in Lent (John 11:1–45)
O Christ, lover and friend,
who felt the desolation of death
and the fear of abandonment
and yet practised ‘yes’ in the midst of each despairing ‘no’,
may we, who also recognise the shape of desolation
and weep,
practise ‘no’ in the midst of each complicit ‘yes’.
No to profiteering and exploitation,
no to indifference and abuse,
no for the sake of the resurrection yes.
Kathy Galloway, from Spring, Ruth Burgess (Ed.), Wild Goose Publications
USA North East