We praise and thank you for your loving presence, especially in the Lent/Easter Season.

We offer heartfelt thanks, dear Lord, particularly for our recent rains.

Once again, we come to you in our need. AS your children we are in need of your healing and protection.

Just as we have been recovering from our dangerous bushfire summer, we have now been thrown into a fearful coronavirus (COVID-19) autumn.

We are tired and frightened.  We feel a sense of panic and future uncertainty on a global scale.

Be with us now, Loving Master.  Without you all is nothing – only empty hearts and total reliance on our own feeble resources.

But with your “there is mercy and fullness of Redemption” (Psalm 130/7).  With you there is “the loving mercy of the heart of our God (who) will give light to those who sit in darkness, those who dwell in the shadow of death, and guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1/79).

It seems that so many public gatherings are now postponed or cancelled.  There is virus death, the sick and the anxious.  We are spending more time on our own, or with family and friends.

We pray for the sick and those looking after them.  Help us to offer practical help to those who struggle.

Let us use these times, O Lord, for your greater glory, especially during Lent and Easter.  Let us pray more, and truly listen to you more in loving silence, stillness and simplicity.

Almighty Father, you always journey with us in life’s challenges.  Help us to meet you often in the scriptures and our sacraments.  Increase in us faith, hope and trust.

Protect us from this coronavirus.  Remove it from our common home.  Heal those who are sick and dying.

Mary, Help of Christians, as always we fly to you in our need.  Be close to us and point out your Son, Jesus, to us in this pandemic.  St Therese of Lisieux and her parents, Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us.

We make this and all our prayers through Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever,

AMEN