Lord, send us out.
Send us out from our buildings, full of history and comfort and meaning, and lead us into your world as your disciples where the story is still being written.
Send us out with our hearts full of love and concern and fear and hope, and lead us into your heart for this blessed and beautiful world where the story is still being written.
Continue to bless places for lonely people to gather; soup lunches and warm spaces; moves and renovations; missions and prayer gatherings; and all the ways we seek to move from where we are to where you want us to be.
Lord, send us out. And remind us – remind me – that the story is still being written. Amen.

Mary sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord”.
But how can I make God greater?
Lord of life, in the way I live, move and inhabit my being,
mirror in me your extravagant love and expansive goodness.
Enlarge my soul: to bear witness to human destruction, riven by unspeakable violence.
Enlarge my soul: to rail against relentless consumption, upending the gentle balance of the earth.
Enlarge my soul: to speak out against power-seeking policies, indifferent to hunger and dismissive of need.
May my spirit dance to the intricately woven melody of prayer, praise and protest.
Be ever greater within me, that my soul may magnify the Lord forever. Amen.

Teach us, Lord, to seek your face in those who think they are faceless; your word among those who are voiceless; and your transforming presence among those who feel powerless. Draw us to yourself that we may be active contemplatives in the heart of your world, discovering afresh the presence of Jesus wherever it is disguised and honouring you in the face of the neighbour, the lowly appearance of bread and wine, and the walk of daily service, that we might follow where you lead and respond with warmed hearts and active hands. Amen.

Inspired by Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Karl Rahner