Except where otherwise stated, the material used is from Midday Prayer, A New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, published by the The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, https://anglicanprayerbook.nz, accessed 13 August 2021.
I am assuming the word “labours” to include all kinds of work, including what we are doing here today
Pausing at midday
O Christ our rest,
We pause amidst the labours of this day,
to remember the best reason for our labouring.
We labour, O Lord, as stewards of your creation,
and of stewards of the gifts you have apportioned to each of us
for the good of all.
Bless then the works of our hands
and minds and hearts, O God,
that they might bear fruit for your greater purposes.
May our work this day be rendered
First as service to you, that the benefits of it might be eternal.
Receive this, the offering of our labours, O Lord.
Amen.[1]
Let us be at peace within ourselves.
Silence
Let us accept that we are profoundly loved
and need never be afraid.
Silence
Let us be aware of the source of being
that is common to us all
and to all living creatures.
Silence
Let us be filled with the presence of the great compassion
towards ourselves and towards all living beings.
Silence
Realising that we are all nourished
from the same source of life,
may we so live that others be not deprived
of air, food, water, shelter, or the chance to live.
Silence
Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be
a cause of suffering to one another.
Silence
With humility let us pray for the establishment
of peace in our hearts and on earth.
Silence
May God kindle in us
the fire of love
to bring us alive
and give warmth to the world.
Lead me from death to life,
from falsehood to truth;
lead me from despair to hope,
from fear to trust;
lead me from hate to love,
from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart,
our world, our universe.
Committing the afternoon to God
Shape our thoughts, O Lord, by your truth,
Even as you shape our hearts by your love.
Now grant us strength and grace, O God,
sufficient for the rest of the day,
that we might move through its unfolding
in humble obedience to your will,
in sensitivity to your Spirit
and in joyful expectancy of your coming kingdom.
May the light of that eternal city
Illuminate our hearts, our paths, our vision
Through these next hours, O Lord.
Amen.[2]
[1] Douglas Kaine McKelvey, Every Moment Holy, vol. 1 (Nashville TN: Rabbit Room Press, 2017), 6.
[2] Ibid., 1:8.