Artist of souls,
out of the rocks of wilderness and fasting,
You sculpted a people for yourself.
Help us as we take up Your invitation to prayer and simplicity,
that the discipline of these forty days
may sharpen our hunger for the feast of Your table,
and whet our thirst for the living water You offer.

O God, as Your Son Jesus lamented
over the divisions of Jerusalem,
so we lament over the divisions of our time:
divisions giving rise to intolerance, inequality,
dismissiveness, and all other forms of hate.

Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

We pray for the city of Christchurch, New Zealand
where 49 people were killed in mosque shootings,
dozens were injured, and countless more were victimized through terror.
We confess that violence, hatred, and intolerance
have no place in Your world.

Grant peace to those who are grieving,
mend all that has been broken.
Help us to see all of humanity
not as an animal species
but a fellowship of care,
a covenant of brotherhood.

As our Lenten journey continues,
may the hunger of our fasting
draw us not into superiority,
but into unity and solidarity
with the poor, the hungry, and least of these.

Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

O God, we pray for Your church.
In a world of darkness may we
light all the lights,
marking out spaces of radical welcome.

May we grieve our divisions
within our own Christian communities.
Continue to reform and renew Your bride,
and make her a place of peace and respite.

May we know our citizenship is in heaven, first,
and that you are making all things new.
Because You are God the Creator, may we treat
all of Your creation with attentiveness and care.

All this we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord have mercy,
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy,
Christ have mercy.