Prayer service to highlight Human Traffi

From a Collection of Prayer Services to highlight Human Trafficking - for use during Advent 2007:Service for Week 4

 

Week Four - Joy

 

Opening Prayer

  

 

God, Almighty, give us the joy of your love to prepare the way for

Christ our Lord, help us to serve you and one another.

 

Passage for Reflection:

 

At the beginning of 2004 year, Katalina - who had grown up in an orphanage - was abandoned by her boyfriend after telling him she was pregnant. Soon afterwards, she was invited by a Russian woman to a birthday party in a local bar in her village near Moldova's second city, Balti. There, Katalina was offered a future in Moscow, with an option to work as a house painter or line worker at a pasta factory. Katalina opted to give it a try - why not? There was nothing for her in Moldova. But events twisted strangely when she and her Russian minder reached the Ukrainian border.

Katalina was trafficked to a brothel in Moscow. As her pregnancy advanced, she was informed that once born, the baby would be sold to help pay her travel debt. With only days to go, Katalina escaped during the guards’ lunchtime, asking tourists the way to the station in Moscow... Katalina swaddles the baby she says gives meaning to her

life, once shattered. She is staying with a family – which knows nothing of her past - in a rain-swept village in the north of Moldova, but will soon have a place of her own, she hopes.

 

 

Adapted from an article by Ed Vullamy

Sunday October 3, 2004– The Observer

 

 

 

 Silent Reflection –

 

How do we bring joy to those people with no joy in their lives?

 

 

Reader:

Together let’s pray this Psalm with Katalina:

 

Psalm 126

 

When the Lord brought the exiles back to Zion

we were like those moving in a dream.

Then our mouths were filled with laughter,

and our tongues with songs of joy.

Among the nations it was said,

“The Lord has done great things for them.”

The Lord had done great things for us,

and we were glad indeed.

Bring back our exiles, O Lord,

like fresh streams in the desert.

Those who sow in tears

will reap with songs and shouts of joy.

They went forth weeping,

bearing the seeds for sowing,

they will come home with joyful shouts,

bringing their harvested sheaves.

 

 

Reading:  Song of Songs 2:10-14

 

My Beloved lifts up his voice, he says to me,

‘Come then, my love, my lovely one come.

For see, winter is past,the rains are over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth.

The season of glad songs has come,

the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.

 

 

The fig tree is forming its first figs

and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance.

Come then, my love, my lovely one, come.

My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock,

in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face,

let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet

and your face is beautiful.

 

Intercessions

 

Reader: All: Lord, bring us your joy

Moldova is Europe's poorest country and according to a UNICEF representative, 'one of the main, if not the main source country for the trafficking of women and children'. We pray for an end to the captivity and abuse suffered by so many people.

 

 

 

Reader: All: Lord, bring us your joy

Poverty is one of the underlying elements that contributes to people becoming vulnerable to traffickers. We pray for the eradication of poverty in our world and look forward to opportunities, training and education for all.

 

 

 

Reader:

  

Nurturing a child is not easy in so many parts of our world. We pray that one day soon, parents willbe able to bring up their children in safety, peace and joy.

 

All: Lord, bring us your joy

 

 

Reader: Together let’s pray The Prayer of St. Francis

 

Lord, make me a channel of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring your love.

Where there is injury, your healing power.

Where there is doubt, true faith in you.

Where there is despair in life, let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, only light.

Where there is sadness, ever joy.

O Spirit grant that I may never seek,

so much to be consoled as to console,

to be understood, as to understand,

to be loved as to love with all my soul.

For it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

in giving that we receive,

and in dying that we're born to eternal life.

 

Final Blessing:

 

May the God of hope fill each one of us with love and peace

so that we may live in joy through the love of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

 

© TRAC c/o 803 Chigwell Rd, Woodford Bridge, IG8 8AU Advent 2007