Lent and Easter 2021

Scripture and Music

Journey to Easter

Congregational Lent Reading - Week Three

St. Columba’s Church of Scotland
Congregational Prayer Time
LENT III 7th March 2021

COLLECT of the DAY:

Almighty God, of ourselves we have no power to help ourselves. Keep us outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Book of Common Order

SCRIPTURES:

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this: and they believed the scripture and word that Jesus had spoken. When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

John 2: 13-22

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Ephesians 2:19-22

PRAYER:

O God our gracious heavenly Father,
the prophet Malachi tells us that you are like a refiner’s fire;
your coming means a purge.
Remind us therefore in whose image we are made
and cleanse the shrine of our hearts
from everything which disfigures;
from the clutter and dross of worldly ambition and anxieties
and from too small a vision of your greatness and majesty,
for “even the heaven of heavens cannot contain you”.

Father Almighty,
you call us into your Church to be members of your body
“built together to be the Temple of God”.
Raise us up by your unfailing mercy
and dwell in us by your Holy Spirit
that we may faithfully serve as Christ’s limbs
through which he speaks and acts
and thus be the community of love
which you would have us be.

So, we pray for the Church universal
and most especially for our own congregations
giving thanks for the many who minister to us
in their several ways
and asking for grace and wisdom
for those who bear rule in our midst.
We ask your blessing on our Minister and Kirk Sessions
and on those whose untiring efforts
have maintained the worship, witness and corporate life
of our fellowships.

Guide by your Spirit we pray the deliberations
of those engaged in the search for an Associate Minister
that we may be led to a true “servant of Christ”
and faithful “steward of the mysteries of God”.

We thank you God that the time of measuring distances
and enforced separation
may be drawing to a close
and that soon we can hear again
the unconstrained laughter of playground children.

Grant that our journey through Lent
may be a period to attune ourselves to your love
and to wait with patience, penitence and praise
for that day when together
we can reach out and hold others in our love
as we are kept and held in yours.

In Jesus’ name we pray these things.

AMEN

TO CONCLUDE A PRAYER by LACHLAN MACLEAN WATT

Make our lips, O God, gates of Thy praises;
make our hearts homes of prayer;
and lift our feet
through darkness and through stumbling
to the light where Thy love abideth.

AMEN

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The office is open from
9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m,
Monday to Friday.

There is a 24-hour answering machine service.

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Find us

St Columba’s is located on Pont Street in Knightsbridge in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The Church is within easy reach of three London Underground stations – Knightsbridge (Piccadilly Line), South Kensington (Piccadilly, Circle and District Lines) and Sloane Square (Circle and District Lines).

	St. Columba's Pont Street London SW1X 0BD
	+44 (0)20-7584-2321
	office@stcolumbas.org.uk

Getting here by tube

Knightsbridge Station

Take the Harrods exit if open (front car if coming from the East, rear car if coming from the West). Come up the stairs to street level, carry on keeping Harrods on your right. Turn right into Basil Street. Carry straight on into Walton Place with St Saviour’s Church on your left. At the traffic lights, St Columba’s is to your left across the street. If the Harrods exit is closed, take the Sloane Street exit, turn right into Basil Street. Carry straight on past Harrods with the shop on your right, into Walton Place as before.

South Kensington Station

Come up the stairs out of the station and turn left into the shopping arcade. Turn left again into Pelham Street. At the traffic lights at the end of Pelham Street cross Brompton Road, turn left then immediately right into the narrow street of Draycott Avenue. After just a few yards turn left into Walton Street. Carry on walking up Walton Street until the traffic lights at the corner of Pont Street. Turn right and after a few steps you will be at St Columba’s!

Sloane Square Station

Cross over the square into Sloane Street. Walk along Sloane Street until the traffic lights at the corner of Pont Street. Turn left into Pont Street. St Columba’s will then be in sight.