Collects for Lent

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 

Book available here.