Dear Lord, Help Me to Feel More Connected to People Around the World

Dear Lord, Help Me to Feel More Connected to People Around the World

Lent: Fasting

Dear Lord, help me to feel more connected to people around the world.

You made us all and asked us to care for each other.

May the choices I make help others too.

Amen

style‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter–
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Isaiah 58:6-7

Dear God, sometimes I find it hard to put others to the front of my mind. By occasionally fasting, or doing an action to put me in someone else’s shoes for a short time, I hope to appreciate what I already have more. I am sorry for the times when I take what I have for granted, and I pray for those who struggle and go without the basic necessities every day, Amen

Jesus, you refused the temptations of the Devil,

Help me refuse to be selfish or thoughtless today

Draw me closer to you, Jesus

We pray for those who do not have enough food to eat, or water to drink,

And as well as praying we ask for the opportunity to act to do something to help

Draw me closer to you, Jesus

Thank you Jesus, for all I have in my life,

For the things I might usually take for granted like water, food and shelter

styleDraw me closer to you, Jesus

If we love others, we live in light (1 John 2:10)

God, open my eyes, ears and heart to the needs of others so that I may see, hear and feel how much more needs to be done to make this world more equal. Amen

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temptedby the devil. After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’Matthew 4:1-3

Prayer activity: talk about your favourite food with other people around you. If you couldn’t ever eat that food again, how would you feel? How about if you couldn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day? Try eating something only small and simple for your next meal.

There are lots of ways we can help those around the world this Lent – we can support CAFOD, and we can also help those closer to home too, supporting St Joseph’s Penny with Caritas or bringing in food items for a food bank in Preston. There are problems with food in other parts of the world, but also here where we live too.