Prayer time 17 December 2025
Contemplative Shared Prayer in the Way of Christ
Christ-centred, shared prayer guided by Unity prayer host
We gather to pray in Unity consciousness.
We welcome traditional prayers and affirmative prayers.
We welcome prayers of petition and prayers of intercession on behalf of others.
A time of warmth, love, compassion, kindness and contemplation.
A time of no right way and no wrong way of prayer.
Just a field, a space beyond right and wrong, in which we remember who we are and to whom we are divinely related.
At this Christmas season, we recall the life of Jesus. Of course we do. We look back at his teachings and we find instruction for living an abundant life. And from our abundance, we live more abundantly, we give more abundantly, we smile, sparkle and shine more abundantly.
Gathering, Orientation & Relaxation
Haere mai, welcome.
This evening is a shared prayer space.
All are welcome to share prayers or to ask for prayer.
Our guiding scaffold for open sharing, is just that we are of course honest, and as best we can, brief and focused.
So as we are, we come. With faith, or without it!
With gratitude or even some grumbles!
In Unity we know that prayer is not at all about convincing God that we are worthy of some answers, but that our prayer is being open and receptive to the Presence that is already here.
This evening, we are looking forward to inviting you to share your prayers.
Spoken aloud, or held quietly in silence, all prayers are welcome here.
Prayers of thanksgiving.
Prayers that are requests.
Prayers that affirm.
Prayers that heal.
Prayers that simply bring us rest.
Prayers that touch us here, and reach all the way round the world to include all human and sentient beings in kind.
We hold this time gently.
There is no teaching, correcting or explaining.
Just Presence, love, trust and friendship.
Invocation: Addressing Our Father
Loving Father in Heaven,
the One Jesus called Abba Father,
you are the Source of all life.
We intentionally turn our hearts and thoughts toward you now.
Right here.
Just as we are.
Not strangers to you.
Nor beggars separated from you.
But as your children, children of the Most High God.
We ask only this:
that together we may become aware
of the Presence, your Presence, that never leaves us.
May we be aware of your Spirit here in this place,
on every heart among us,
on every word spoken,
and on every word quietly withheld, but offered in the silence.
As so we settle…..
Entering Shared Silence - Contemplative Grounding
So let’s just take a few moments of silence.
Breathing in, breathing out….
Allow the silence to fill the space around you.
No need to fix your thoughts.
No need to make anything happen.
No need to wish things were different.
Simply notice that you are already held in God’s Presence, just by being here.
Sometimes a simple phrase or word can help us settle, for example
“I Am here.”
“God is with me here.”
or
“Our Father.” And so we come. And silence is.
Opening the Circle for Spoken Prayer
So my dear ones, you are very welcome to speak shared prayers.
You may offer thanksgiving, or a prayer of trust or a statement of truth.
You may prayer for another, or for a situation.
Or may just like like to name a simple intention.
You don’t need polished words. God understands the language of the heart.
We pause. Let silence do its work.
Holding Prayer Requests
You are very welcome to ask for prayer, or suggest a situation that we hold in prayer.
We could speak one after another, bringing our thoughts and requests to the group, or we can just gently move through one thing at a time.
……
I may respond:
Thank you for bringing this to us.
We hold this together in the light and love of God.
Father,
we hold this beloved life, or this situation, or this people group in Your care.
We do not tell You what to do - as we trust what You are already doing.
May we understand Your peace, already here, in this situation, for these loved ones.
May we apply Your wisdom in our active responses.
May Your all-sustaining love be known, remembered, and felt here and now.
Silence - as needed.
Presence, more than affirmations.
There is no rush.
And, the invitation again.
Christ-Centred Prayer
Oh that our hearts clearly speak here. That we are unhindered, free, and delighting in the nature of God.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Our constant companion on the road of life.
You, Jesus, who knew the full spectrum of human emotions and experiences.
You experienced joy, grief, trust, betrayal.
You lived with courage, grace, kindness and compassion.
You showed the way to live, and encouraged us to live our lives as you chose to live.
In this moment, we bring our prayers to you, and through you, to our Father.
You have already taught us to pray, and yet still, we sometimes just don’t seem to have the words to say.
In these such moments, teach us to trust.
Teach us to see with the eyes of the Soul.
To see answers and questions.
To see paths of righteousness and the way of truth.
To see forgiveness and to know forgiveness and to be forgiveness.
Please feel free to pray aloud or to enjoy the silence.
Communal Prayer - Spoken Together
Let us pray gently together, as we do, using the Lord’s prayer.
Closing Blessing - as we said last week, we are Grounded
You are God’s children.
Each one of you, called by name, held in love, surrounded by the Light of God.
You are God’s hands.
You are God’s feet.
Together, as we leave from this prayer space, the only thing we leave behind is the sweetness of shared prayer.
We do not leave God’s Presence, nor especially, do we leave God behind!
Let the peace that has nourished you here, nourish you as you leave.
May the ideas and love that have begun and unfolding in you here, continue to unfold in the days to come.
Christ walks with you in every ordinary moment.
May we recognise Christ in every person we meet.
And may the divine love of the Father, hold us, always, and until we meet again.
Amen. Amene. Tihei mauri ora.
Prepared by Jacinda Faloon-Cavander for Unity of NZ