COTTESBROOOKE 19 May 2007
A prayer of Martin Luther.
1 Behold, O Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled.  My Lord, fill it.  I am weak in the faith: strengthen me.  I am cold in love ; warm me and make me fervent that my love may go out to my neighbour.  O Lord help me.  Strengthen my faith and trust in you.
With me there is an abundance of sin; in you is the fullness of righteousness.  Therefore I will remain with you , from whom I can receive, but to whom I may not give. 
2. As we come to the end of Christian Aid week we pray for the people of the developing world and remember that they as much as we deserve a decent life before death.  Sometimes Lord, the ,multiplicity of problems overwhelm us: Darfur, Aids, climate change, war and famine. We can only put a drop in the bucket of need here in our own parish.  We pray for the people of the developing world and thank you, Lord, for our own good fortune.  And as we do so and return our envelopes to Christian Aid , let us bear in mind those wonderful words of John Donne Meditation 17
No man is an island entire of itself; everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were.  Any man’s death diminishes us, because we are involved in mankind.   
3. Blessed Lord, who was tempted in all things just as we are, have mercy on our frailty.  Out of weakness give us strength.  Grant us to reverence you, so that we may reverence you only.  Support us in time of temptation.  Make us bold in time of danger.  Help us to do your work with courage, and to continue your faithful soldiers and servants to our life’s end; through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
4. If there be some weaker one,…….
5. My prayers and alms, imperfect and defiled,
Were but the feeble efforts of a child;
Howe’er performed, it was their brightest part,
That they proceeded from a grateful heart. 
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore Amen
