Prayer of the Faithful
20/02/2020
PRAYERS UPDATED EACH THURSDAY FOR THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY
PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL
THIS SUNDAY
Celebrant; The Lord is compassion and love. Let us express our needs to Him with the confidence of beloved children.
INTERCESSIONS
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. In this way we will be children of the Father. As we reflect on these words, we pray for the grace to make our peace with all and to answer the Lord’s call to love Him and love our neighbour.
We pray to the Lord R. Lord, hear our prayer
On this day when Jesus calls on all his followers to love their enemies, we pray for an end to war, violence and murder in our country and throughout the world.
We pray to the Lord R. Lord, hear our prayer
Today, Temperance Sunday, we pray for those who are struggling with addictions. We pray that they find the courage and support to overcome their affliction and renew their lives.
We pray to the Lord R. Lord, hear our prayer
We pray for families where addictions or intemperance are causing pain and hardships that the Lord give them the patience, the energy and the spiritual support to live through their difficulties.
We pray to the Lord R. Lord, hear our prayer
We pray for our young people that they be given guidance in their lives and an understanding of the dangers of drugs and excessive drinking.
We pray to the Lord R. Lord, hear our prayer
On this coming Ash Wednesday, when we will be reminded that we are mortal, let us pause and reflect on our lives, remember where we are going and pray to the Father that we live a life that is worthy of the reward which He has promised to those who follow His way.
We pray to the Lord R. Lord hear our prayer
We remember in silence our own personal intentions and the intentions of those who have asked for our prayers
We pray to the Lord R. Lord hear our prayer
Celebrant; Help us, O Lord, to love you above all things and our neighbours as ourselves. We make these prayers through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
DATE: ABOVE PRAYERS ARE FOR MASSES ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2020, SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – DAY OF PRAYER FOR TEMPERANCE.
THE SEASON OF LENT COMMENCES ON WEDNESDAY NEXT, FEBRUARY 26th, ASH WEDNESDAY
I use the Prayer of the Faithful on this site very often. I find them to be very topical & relevant to people’s lives. The prayers echo, to a great extent, the Scripture Readings of the day. Sincere thanks to all concerned for this wonderful service
ACI thank you for your kind comment Tom. We think it important that, in the only part of the Mass where the laity have an input, the Prayer of the Faithful should be immediate and reflect the concerns of the community at that particular moment in time as well as relating to the overall theme of the day as dictated by the readings and gospel.
Editors
Peace and all good! Greetings from Holy Cross Catholic Church Nicosia, Cyprus. I am so delighted that I have found your site. Thank you so much! May the Holy Spirit continue to inspire you who have been given the gift to put into words what many of us find to be truly a challenge. Thank you for sharing your gift with us so that we can share them with our parishioners.
I am a lay servant of liturgy in our Ten O’clock Family Mass here at Uganda Martyrs Catholic Shrine, Namugongo/Uganda where I find your postings of “The Prayer of theFaithful” most relevant and indeed Universal.Your posts inform our own needs and underscore our Catholicism pretty well indeed. I thank you from the heart and ask you always continue to pray for us, for conversion and repentance in the world, and all those in need.
I am one of those people who enjoy the content of the prayers, and as one of the leaders in our Small Catholic Community in Lilongwe, Malawi, we adopt them for use when our community is leading in liturgy. We will be leading in liturgy on 15 January 2017 and I will be relying on your next post, I wonder when that will be? Stay blessed and may the Holy Spirit continue to guide you.
Peter,
Thank you for your mail and we appreciate your comments. With regard to your query, as we try to reflect the “now” in our prayers, we tend to upload each Sunday’s prayers by the Friday noon prior to the Sunday.
Consequently, we expect to upload the prayers for Sunday 15th Jan by noon on Friday 13th Jan.
I am planning our whole school mass for the Feast of St Brigid and I am wondering if you write prayers of the Faithful for this day?
Kelly from New Zealand
Kelly,
St Brigid is, after St Patrick, our most revered Irish saint and we will certainly be honouring her with special prayers on her Feast Day, February 1st. We will also be thinking of your school and hopefully the children will be making St Brigid crosses on the day and hanging them on the walls at home during the rest of the year.
Love these prayers of faithful all down to earth. But I work in a church and lately they are not ready on a friday before one so I do miss not having them …
Ann,
Sorry, just recently saw your comment and am only now replying. We appreciate your deadline and have set our own now to be up on site each week by 12.00 noon Fridays. We want to wait until Fridays to be as relevant as possible for the weekend Masses.
Thank you…..
I, too, look for your prayers sooner than Friday – we try to have ours ready by Thursday (with the option to update them if something happens).
Hi Fionnuala,
Our Prayer of the Faithful editor says:
“Fionnuala,
“Thank you for your comment regarding the update of our Prayers of the Faithful every week. In fact, following similar requests, we have been updating the prayers each week by 1.00pm each Thursday for at least the last six months or so. Perhaps, because our previous target was Friday, you did not notice this change.
“We are appreciative of all comments received and try as far as possible to meet the needs of those who find them helpful each week in ensuring that the voices of the non-ordained are heard in their Mass.
Regards,
Editor”
I just found this site just love the prayers of the faithful, would be good if we remember the sick as well as the departed, especially the departed Missionaries…God bless keep up the great work
I am delighted.
I am very delighted with this site because it provides an important part of the liturgy during Holy Mass. May God inspire the writer more so that Christians benefit from that gift of writing.
March 17 our 45th ann. Please share prayer of the faithful esp. we are at the Church where we got married at the Phil. We live in USA.
Thanks & God bless.
Many blessings, Lulu, on you, your spouse and your whole family. July 15th, 2019 will be our fiftieth anniversary. We live in Coleraine, Northern Ireland – but have a son, a daughter-in-law and three granddaughters, all American, in Boston. Stay warm, stay prayerful, stay safe! Sean O’Conaill
I don’t have any comment. But I humbly ask this favor:
Kindly send me the daily prayer of the faithful.
Thank you & Godbless!
Our Editor for Prayers of the Faithful responds as follows:
Sr Gloria, thank you for your response and your request for daily prayers of the faithful. Regretfully, we can only provide these for Sundays and Holy Days in the Church calendar. We have sought an alternative source for you but have been unable to find any site or publication offering POF on a daily basis. If any reader can enlighten us on this, we would be delighted to pass on the information.
Sr. Gloria can find this link
http://www.adelaide.catholic.org.au/our-faith/daily-intercessions
Hi in our church we ask our teenagers to do the prayers of the faithful. We have had a great response and they have been doing it now for the past 10 years or more. Its a great way to keep teenagers involved in the church. Thank you association of Catholics Ireland for your prayers each week
Love to use these prayers of faithful. But never ready on Friday morning early so I cannot use them or help out the priest and have them done the weekend for him .Pity.
Regards anne
First time I’m getting to this. Ours is a small community called St Gabriel’s Mission Station, a part of St Edmund’s Pastoral Zone Mulang, in the archdiocese of Bamenda in Cameroon. I found these prayers very suitable and easily adaptable to our context.
Thanks a lot and may the Holy Spirit continue to inspire the writers to do more.
Happy Easter!
Many thanks, Wilson. And Happy Easter to you all in St Gabriel’s Mission Station.
Let the Mercy of God locate me,my siblings, the Church all over the world, l pray oh Lord
Hello. I cannot find your old Prayer of the Faithful archive. Can you let me access it?
We do daily intercessory prayers and I would like to share them with those who might be interested. Thank you and God bless.
There is as yet no archive for our Prayers of the Faithful, but your query prompts us to look into that possibility. I will get back soon to let you know if we can soon begin archiving prayers from now on.
Thanks for suggesting this!
Sean
Many thanks, Neelar, for your query. Sean,our ‘expert’ on the website is away on vacation at the moment. I’m sure he will follow up when he returns.
In the meantime wishing you and your community God’s Blessing.
Iam Aldo From Koboko Parish Arua Dioces Uganda.The Prayers Are So Nice And Easy To Read So Please Is It Possible To Send It To My Email Every Sunday
I fear that we cannot yet do that, Aldo. Our resources are as yet too limited. We hope it isn’t too great an inconvenience to come to this prayer page.
Ar maidin mhaith Sean o Naomh Josephs i Toronto, go mbeadh an dillis agat don Domhnach Pentecost seo chugaill sa ghaeilge.
Tá áthas orainn a chlois ó léitheoir i Toronto. Go raibh maith agat as do dhea-mhianta agus táimid buíoch go dtóg tú an t-am chun teagmháil a dhéanamh linn. Go mbealaigh Dia agus an Spiorad Naomh tu féin agus do clainn uile ar an Domhnach Pentecost seo.
We are pleased to hear from a reader in Toronto. Thank you for your good wishes and we appreciate you taking the time to contact us. May God and the Holy Spirit bless you and all your family on this Pentecost Sunday.
We listen to our readers, particularly those who prepare Prayers of the Faithful in their local parish churches, and over the past few weeks, in response to requests, we have brought forward the uploading of the prayers for the following Sunday to Thursdays.
We hope to be in a position to do this each week from now on.
Thank you so much for the prayers, I find it very helpful when I have to prepare for my community here in Nadi,Fiji. Your prayers are truly meaningful and inspiring.
I thank God for identifying this Prayer of the faithful page. It will be helpful for me to always prepare my bidding prayers to read at Church.
I’m so grateful for this prayers of the faithful page,it reflects more on the gospel,and helps me prepare for mass in time,and helps me understand the gospel,thanks for helping in with your page
I have started to send the Prayers of the Faithful to our priest and he has used them – a significant improvement!
Alleluia!
Thank you so much for your prayers I live in Sydney , regularly attend mass but also like to refer and pray before retiring each night. God bless from Kathy
Thank you lectors. May God give you the strength and zeal to carry on. Sylvanus from Cameroon
Discovered your site as a “fall back” from our usual source, and found your prayers very meaningful and relevant. Will use more often in future in preparation of our prayers of the faithful at Mass. God bless you and greetings from Yorkshire!
Nice piece of prayer for our present day world
I really appreciate all who prepare for us this wonderful gift. May you be blessed more and more. Amen.
Tá Aifreann Gaeilge againn gach Domhnach in Eaglais an tSlánaitheora Naofa i mBré,agus úsáidim do phaidreacha mar chnamharlach is me ag cumadh paidreacha i nGaeilge don Aifreann sin.Go raibh maith agaibh.
Âine.
This is a very useful material. God bless you for this.
Every Sunday , we use these prayers for our English mass in South Sudan. Christ Bless
Sarjoh, thank you for your message. It is wonderful to hear that the ACI Prayers of the Faithful are being used by your community in South Sudan. May God Bless you and your community.
Noel.
First time using this site as a Lay minister I used the prayer of the faithful as a guide when preparing for service. Sometimes when time is limited. God bless, continue the great work God has started in each. Blessings from Trinidad and Tobago.
Grate effort, I am using this prayers in our Sunday mass with necessary change. Thank you
Many thanks, Jacob. Where are you based?
God Bless your work.
I love this site, which I have only just discovered, but would request that you add the Celebrant’s opening and closing prayer too!
The Prayer Page Editor responds:
”Fionnuala, thank you for taking the time to mail us. Take a look at the site now and see if we have met satisfactorily with your request.
And wishing all who weekly check in to our prayers a Holy and Happy Christmas.”
Yes, thank you! As a lay person who writes bidding prayers for use in our parish, this is a great help.
Prayers for you all this time of year. Pray for me – the veil has been lifted on the ‘global lawsuit’ and attachments, constitutionally and religiously so I’m in fully fossil fuel industry view.
It’s exactly where a social activist wants to be this time of year. You feel like an eagle landing after a successful hunt crossing river after river.
Angels, what have we done? Together, we’ll cross this river.
I always use your prayers when it’s my turn for our Sunday intersessions, and I know of others that do as well.
Always in line with the gospel and sermon.
Thank you
I am from Sri Lanka. Well I do really appreciate your Ministry. May the good Lord bless you to continue the good work you are doing for his church and for his people. Thank you once again..
God Bless you!
Noel Fernando
Parish of Loughlinstown, Co Dublin
I feel I have to write to you as I would like to thank you most sincerely for your wonderful Prayer of the Faithful link. I use it every week in our Church and I find them very inspirational and extremely helpful.
Again many thanks and God bless you all.
Kind regards,
—
Teresa Devlin
Parish Secretary
Greetings from All the way from Plainview, NY, USA. Your section of the prayer of the faithful is helpful to prepare the weekend liturgy. Thank You so much.
Thanks Tom, plz send more prayers so I can use for my Sunday prayer of the faithful in my church – like for the leaders in our country, for peace in our country, for the sick and homeless,for the Pope, bishop, priest.
I am a new convert to Catholicism and have so much to learn. When I have questions, I turn to the many Catholic websites online but I get different answers and even different quotes from verses in the Bible. I looked up the original novena which is to be said during Jesus’ ascension to Heaven and the Pentecost and each website gives different prayers to recite. How or where can I get accurate information?
Hi Diane,
Because Catholicism is a world-wide church there are variations in English language Catholic websites, while the Bible has gone through different translations into English since print was invented. My advice is to remember that the Holy Spirit is everyone’s most important teacher, and will help you reach a calm personal decision on whatever differences you encounter. So pray as you read, always, remembering that peace of mind is one of the gifts that comes with prayer to the Holy Spirit. As Pope Francis tells us the truth is a person who makes His home with us, not trapped in text on the page. Don’t suppose that you need to master all the long unfamiliar words either. Jesus speaks always in simple words, to our hearts, and the Holy Spirit will give us simple words also, as will any good Christian teacher.
You may encounter websites that try to stir up division in the church, for example by attacking Pope Francis. The Holy Spirit is also the spirit of peace and reconciliation – and that is another reason that prayer is necessary when reading on the Internet. Remember Jesus’s command always: ‘Love one another, as I have loved you.’ The Holy Spirit will be telling you the same, always.
Welcome to ACI!
Sean O’Conaill
Hi Diane,
I fully agree with Sean’s comments.
I would also suggest that you perhaps look at Richard Rohr’s website and ‘The Centre for Action and Contemplation’. You could draw on his daily reflections which are accessible by email. Many people find his words inspirational, opening up challenging topics for consideration usually based on the core teaching of Jesus and the advice to focus on imitating Our Saviour in our daily life rather than placing God on a pedestal to be adored.
I wish you every success in your journey on which I am sure, as Sean suggests, the Spirit will surely accompany you.
Your post of the prayer of the faithful helps me a lot.I use it for our liturgy here in India for our English mass.Can you please post it a week before like a Sunday before.Thanks.Good work.God bless you.
Would you please write for me the prayer of the faithful for Sunday July 14th 2019. I know your post is updated ever thursday but it is little late for me. Can u plz post it a Sunday before thanks. It helps me a lot for the Sunday English mass here in India. Thanks. Please mention for the rain. We need rain for our crops and our farmers.
From ACI’s Prayer Editor:
“Maria,
Thank you for your message which is much appreciated. In our Prayers of the Faithful each week, we try to reflect the readings of the particular Sunday or Feast Day and relate them to the message which we see Jesus sending us.
Additionally, we try to identify current concerns relating to what’s going on in people’s lives, in the Church and in the world. We try as far as possible to be immediate. To achieve this, the ultimate approach would be to prepare the prayers early on the Sunday morning or late Saturday night. As this is not practical, we set noon on the previous Thursday as our target deadline.
This appears to be the favoured approach among the various parish personnel who use our website in the preparation and printing of their prayers. We wish God’s blessings on you in your mission of proclaiming the Word.”
ACI Prayer Editor.
~
And if you truly need a special prayer related to an immediate situation, Maria, remember that the Holy Spirit is equally close to all of us all the time – so just pray directly to the Holy Spirit, who will help you put words of your own to the need that you see. If you can comment here, you can do that too!
Thank you for the prayers. They are very meaningful.We use them in Church and people like them because they are topical
Grateful to have the prayers relevant to the days readings. Will certainly adopt this in our church am from Kenya
Thank God for this site! Now I struggle less with fixing lines and intentions for prayer of the faithful in my Church!! I’m a Crossriverian
I am very grateful to the persons involved in this work as I often use this site and get guidance from it to prepare intentions for our parish in Welisara, Sri Lanka
nice
Relevant and topical, i am a deacon and I use these prayers every Sunday. I am In Jamaica
The comments here are very positive and richly deserved. These prayers are very well written, they are reading the times we live in very well and, unlike other sites, offering a response that is free of polemics and had a strong sense of what church really is. I use them in my parish all the times, having for many years written. These, however, are genuinely the prayers of a committed, engaged and well informed lay faithful. Thanks
May the Holy Spirit continue to inspire you who have been given the gift to put into words what many of us find to be truly a challenge. Thank you for sharing your gift with us so that that can share them with our parishioners.
I am very delighted with this site because it provides an important part of the liturgy during Holy Mass. May God inspire the writer more so that Christians benefit from that gift of writing. My prayers, from “HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH, Nicosia Cyprus
This is really helpful for my spiritual growth. I remember one time when mothers in our local community took the liturgy, I search for faithful prayers because I will take it on that sunday. It was really inspiring for the congregation.Thank you and may God continues to blessed you more.God bless you and now we are blessed by your gift.S.t Vincent Den Paul:Holy family parish Solomon Islands.
As per next Sunday reading LK2:22-40 Jesus is presented in the temple. However, 1st intention is based on beatitude. is it correct?
Reply from Prayers Editor
Well spotted Neil.
This Sunday is the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time. February 2nd, however, each year marks the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. This year, both coincidentally fall on the same day and while normally the Sunday of Ordinary Time would take precedence, we have noted that in some dioceses this year the gospel readings being used are those of the Presentation, while in others it is the Beatitudes.
When we were originally devising this week’s prayers, we were using a missalette which contained the Gospel reading from Matt 5; 1 – 12, the Beatitudes.
Thanks for your input. We have now uploaded Prayers of the Faithful to cater for both approaches. Will have to rap the Holy Spirit on the knuckles for this one.
Prayers Editor
Thank you for your explanation and being kind enough to add more intentions.
Thank you so much to the writers of these prayers. It is extremely generous of you to share your gift in this way. God bless.
Thank you for your wonderful prayers. I use them all the time for my own Parish. Regards, Mike Galea from South Australia 🙂