COmmunion Prayer for Maundy Thursday

Source of love, light, and life,
we gather at this table in the name of Jesus, the Servant King,
the one who calls us to love and serve each other,
who reveals most fully your love and hopes for the world.

Creator, you spoke and the world came into being,
in you live, we move, we exist.
Here and now we reflect on the many gifts we have received throughout our lives.
We join our hearts with people around the globe who shout, sing, dance their thanks.
And so we name, aloud or in the silence of our hearts,
those things for which we are thankful this evening....
For all you goodness God, we give you thanks.

Ever-loving God, you promise to never abandon us,
you are there when our hearts are heavy,
you are there to carry us when our strength fails,
you share our tears and comfort us in our dis-ease.
This evening we hold in prayer all who struggle, for whatever reason,
and we name them aloud or in our silent prayers...
Comforter, may all those in pain, in grief, in fear, all those who struggle,
know that they are loved this night.

God of our past, our present, and our future,
The One who is and was and is to come,
Since the beginning you have communicated with your children in many ways.
You have sent messengers and teachers and prophets.
With joy we remember folk like
Sarah and Abraham, Moses and Miriam, Deborah, David, Micah,
Peter, Paul, Mary, Lydia, and so many others.
The writer of Hebrews reminds us that we all have a great cloud of witnesses.
As part of the community that stretches far into the past and wide in the present
we remember those who are part of our clouds and name them aloud or in silence...
God of community, we give thanks for all we have learned from others in our walk of faith.

God who is always active in the world.
As followers of Jesus of Nazareth, the one we call Christ and Messiah,
we give thanks for the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh.
We remember what he taught about your Reign.
We remember how he modelled what living as citizens of the Kingdom of Love could look like.
Eating with the marginalized, healing the broken-ness in people’s lives.
And we commit ourselves to follow The Way he showed us.

As we gather at this table we remember another table, long ago and far away.
Jesus and his friends gathered at that table to share the feast of liberation, of freedom from bondage.
During that gathering he took bread, blessed it, broke it and passed it to his friends saying:
Take, eat. This is my body, broken by and for the world. Whenever you eat it remember me.
Then later Jesus took a cup of wine, blessed it and passed it to them saying:
Take and drink, This is the cup of the New Covenant. Whenever your drink it remember me.
All these years later we continue to eat and drink and remember, God who meets us here.

As we eat and drink here tonight, pour your Holy Spirit onto us.
Awaken in us a passion for your Kingdom.
Make us willing to give of ourselves to spread your love and hope in the world.
Help us follow The Way of Jesus Christ.
We pray these things in his name and we share together words that unite us with Christians across the miles and through the ages, words Jesus taught his friends long ago:
Our Father...