THOMAS OF INDIA - PRAY FOR INDIA; PRAY FOR US
Today is a great celebration for India, it is a solemnity for the Church of that vast, beautiful, populous, fascinating country .
"St. Thomas brought the faith to India in 52 AD. What a privilege we had that one of the apostles came to India! A God-given Apostolic gift to India, we must respond by being Apostolic religious people, a spiritual people moving towards Christ, towards our heavenly Father ”. Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai
SAINT THOMAS, PATRON OF INDIA, APOSTLE TO INDIA, PRAY FOR INDIA.
Almighty God, who to your holy Apostle Saint Thomas our patron
revealed your incarnate Son in his risen glory;
draw we pray the peoples of our land to know you as their Lord and God,
that coming to you by him they may believe and have life;
through the same your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
Remembering Saint Thomas, we invoke the blessing promised to those
who have not seen the nailmarks of your hands,
and the spearmarks thrust into your heart, and yet believe;
that leading others to confess you as their Lord and God,
they may together find life in you.
PRAYER FOR INDIA IN THIS PANDEMIC
I will say of the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
God of power and might we pray for our brothers and sister in India to you.
We pray for your protection,
We pray for your provision,
We pray for the nations of earth to have compassion,
When people are in need, you are our refuge,
When people are scared, you are our refuge.
When people are mourning, you are our refuge
Compassionate God, draw close to those who seek your refuge today.
Healer of all, giver of life, we bow our heads lift up our hearts and pour out prayers as tears for our sisters and brothers our human family in India enduring a Covid crisis worse than our imagination can comprehend. Oxygen, good leadership, wood for cremations hope of this wave ending all too short in supply. How do we pray for an inadequate system now collapsing? How do we pray for an underinvestment in healthcare? How do we pray for the end of a virus that spreads because of inequality and injustice?
We pray because we believe In your love and compassion In your mysterious ways In your promises of comfort In your provision as Yahweh In your power to intervene In your work transforming hearts In your incarnate solidarity that descended even to hell And is present even in this reality. So we do pray For generosity and provision from within India and the international community; For the fair and equal distribution of a vaccine; For the fundamental right of healthcare for all,
poor or wealthy, caste or outcast,
to be realised; For the doctors and nurses at breaking point to be helped; For a deeply-flawed political system to be resurrected as a new creation
of God's making and blessing. So help us all, God,
“Thomas had always been a Seeker, a scholar of the Truth. Before the last supper, he asked Jesus 'Lord, we don't know where you are going, how do we know the way?' And Jesus said to Thomas: 'I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me " Thomas, called " doubting", makes his highest pronouncement - his profession, 'My Lord and my God', the clearest declaration of the divinity of Jesus in Scripture. "Thomas sees God completely revealed in Jesus.
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