Prayer Resources

The Connexional Prayer Hub

Start a conversation or make space to listen. Explore ways to pray

Daily Prayer Resources

From the Methodist Prayer Handbook, a Prayer for Today

Quarterly Prayer Card

Developed by the Nurturing Faith Mission Group , the quarterly prayer card provides a focus for the quarter.

Weekly Prayer Resources

We acknowledge the assistance of twelvebaskets in providing these resources.

Monday 15th December
Opening the curtains, blinds or shutters:
Take time to pray for the world and in particular those who live and work in your community. The shopkeepers, restaurants and bars. For service providers, hairdressers, beauticians and the Post Office. For health providers like the Doctors and Chemist.

Tuesday 16th December
Advent God, in these last few days of waiting and preparing, create a stillness in me, I pray – that I might be able to hear your promptings, notice your love, be awake to your call on my life.
Come, in the stillness, Immanuel.
Amen

Wednesday 17th December
Why not find one of your favourite pieces of Christmas music and use it as a prompt for prayer today. Are any of the lyrics a helpful guide into prayer, or does the feeling the song creates in you help to take you towards a prayerful prompt? Praying can be festive too!

Thursday 18th December
Today is International Migrants Day. Amongst all the sad and divisive narrative we are getting from politicians and the media, let us remember at this time of year that the Holy Family were themselves a migrant family, seeking refuge in a foreign land. Migrant God, move amongst us today, that we might build kingdoms of welcome, not islands of exclusivity.
Amen

Friday 19th December
Look around you, right now. Where are the signs of light, of hope, of possibility? Give thanks for those, and see what other thoughts are prompted as you say your prayers of gratitude.
‘There is a crack, a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in’ – Leonard Cohen

Saturday 20th December
International Human Solidarity Day is observed on December 20 and is an annual unity day of the United Nations and its member states, inviting us to stand in solidarity with those most in need around the world.
Who are you standing with today? Why not pick a news story from this morning’s headlines and pray about that – find out a bit more about the country or people involved and spend some time thinking and praying about God’s desire for them and their lives.

Monday 22nd December
In these final few days of Advent, you might like to whisper your own version of Joseph’s prayer: not one of certainty, but of courage: God, help me to listen. Help me to trust your presence when I don’t understand it. Help me to believe that love is being born here. Help me to say yes.

Tuesday 23rd December
‘Tis the season, so they say…the season for what? As you head into the 12 days of Christmas over the next couple of weeks, take a moment to think and pray: what does this season need to mean for you, for your walk with Christ, for your response to God’s love?

Wednesday 24th December – Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve might be one of the most precious gifts in the annual calendar – an invitation to pause, to breathe in, to think of others as you put the final touches to a meal prepared to share or a present bought with love.
Loving God, help us to accept the gift of this day, the power of anticipation, the
spirituality of waiting.
Come Lord Jesus, Amen.

Thursday 25th December – Christmas Day
During each of the 12 days of Christmas, our prayer prompts here in The Vine at
Home are short poems, which we hope will help act as an invitation to prayer. You
may like to read them aloud if that helps.

What are you hoping for this year?
Oh just the usual, I guess.
Meaning?
Oh, I think an antidote to overwhelm, would be useful,
Don’t you?
And whatever the reversal of anxiety looks like.
I’d love a stocking full of love,
In bite-sized, manageable chunks.
And the tiny flicker of hope
That next year might be a little bit better -
Can you bring me that?
I definitely need somewhere to put my climate grief,
And something about peace on earth would really help -
Especially when I watch the news by accident.
Can I get a picture of my family together,
And a taste of sophistication and grace,
With a sprinkling of laughter and a wreath
That reminds me how wonderful God’s creation is,
To hang on the door, please?
I’d like to unwrap a sense of self-worth,
An ability to be kind more often than I’m cynical,
And an abundance of patience. Do you have that?
Are you beginning to wish you hadn’t asked?
No, and I can’t promise, but I think a little bit of all that is contained in these
next two words.
Are you ready?
Yes.
Happy Christmas.

Friday 26th December – Boxing Day
Just as the songs become unbearable,
Just as the overused jumper becomes unwearable,
Just as the much-fixed lights become unrepairable,
Suddenly, its done and gone, another year over, or so they say.
But wait –
Christmas is much more than a day,
It’s a season, and it’s here to stay.
So yes, Santa may be packing up the sleigh,
But the Immanuel doesn’t go away,
God is really with us, here,
And that can help us face our fear:
Come near, come near O God, and show me
that even though you truly know me,
You love me, with the tender unconditionality
Of a tiny infant’s hospitality,
And may I nurture a spirituality,
Just as simple, just as brimming with vitality.

Saturday 27th December
Hush, hush, hushhhhhh
in the crush of the pavements
the rush of the shopping centre
the gush-mush-lush of adverts turned up to eleven,
how am I supposed to hear the song of heaven?
So won’t you hush, just a moment,
own the hereness of now,
and now, and now.
The noises will keep on noising,
the shoppers will keep on shopping,
the nations will keep on warring,
the stresses will keep on stressing,
the money-worries won’t entirely go away,
and I cannot stop them, cannot silence them, cannot ignore them,
but I can still me, and just be:
set myself free
and perhaps this Christmas I can witness
to the delicious richness of stillness,
and the perpetual, eternal love song
not louder than all those distracting gongs,
but deeper, older and strong,
rolling on and on, even amongst all that is broken, grieving and wrong.
Perhaps this Christmas I can see,
perhaps perched upon a laden fir tree,
a divine messenger sent just for me.

Amongst all that commercial litter,
all that glitz and glitter,
Amongst all that is sparkling, let me be still.
And, just for now,
let me hushhhhhhh.