Prayer is focusing on God and recognizing our need of God. We can bring our concerns before God, asking for our needs and those of others.  When we pray we seek to let God’s love and peace flow into people and situations. Spend a few moments picturing someone, being aware of their needs, then imagine God’s love and light filling them. Giving thanks or counting our blessings is very important in prayer; it can give us a different way of looking at life. Spend a few minutes looking back over the last few days, let the events and people surface in your mind – what can you give thanks for?

Praise is having a sense of wonder.  Spend a few minutes outside.  Stand still, shut your eyes, listen to the sounds, the more you listen the more you hear. Look, notice the big picture and the details, for example the veins on a leaf. Shut your eyes again and feel the ground under your feet, the sun/rain/wind warmth/cold on your face, and scents in the air. Give thanks and praise.

Sorry.  We all get it wrong and we need to say sorry to God and sometimes to each other.  Unlike people, God always forgives.

We can pray in our own words, we can draw on the wisdom and spirituality of others and use prayers others have written.  We can simply be silent and still, placing ourselves before God.  Sometimes when doing this, to keep our focus it can help to repeat slowly a very simple prayer such as Jesus, mercy.  Or My God and my all.

Christian prayer is in the name of Jesus because through dying and rising he shows us the depth of God’s love and offers us a new beginning.

The Lord’s prayer starts and finishes with praise and wonder at God.  It begins by remembering that God is a loving parent, concerned for each one of us.  In it we ask for God’s guidance and protection – ‘your will be donedeliver us from evil.’  We ask for our daily needs and to be forgiven and the grace to forgive others.

We can pray alone or join with others.  Jesus says: ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them’ (Matthew 18:20)

You are very welcome to come to a church service, or to enjoy alone the stillness and peace of this place.

If you would like someone to pray with you or for you please complete a prayer request.