
Epistle Reflection
God of seed and growth and harvest,
creator of need, creator of satisfaction;
give us, we pray, our daily bread,
sufficient and assured for all.
Give us also, we pray, the bread of life,
and we shall have a care to feed the hungry,
and to seek for peace and justice in the world.
Help us, then, to remember and to know
that you are our life today and every day;
you are the food we need, now and for ever.
Amen.
New Testament Reading - Paul’s missionary hopes

17So it is right for me to be a little proud of all Christ Jesus has done through me. 18I dare not judge how effectively he has used others, but I know this: he has used me to win the Gentiles to God. 19I have won them by my message and by the good way I have lived before them and by the miracles done through me as signs from God—all by the Holy Spirit’s power. In this way I have preached the full Gospel[a] of Christ all the way from Jerusalem clear over into Illyricum.
20But all the while my ambition has been to go still farther, preaching where the name of Christ has never yet been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. 21I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures where Isaiah says that those who have never heard the name of Christ before will see and understand. 22In fact, that is the very reason I have been so long in coming to visit you.
23 But now at last I am through with my work here, and I am ready to come after all these long years of waiting. 24For I am planning to take a trip to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off there in Rome; and after we have had a good time together for a little while, you can send me on my way again.
. . . . . Romans 15:17-24- Or “I have fully accomplished my gospel ministry.”
Intercession
Pray for 5 people on your heart ending with the prayer below.
Heavenly Father
We pray for… those in need:
those who suffer;
the sick;
the poor;
the distressed;
the lonely; the unloved;
the persecuted;
the unemployed;
those who grieve; and those who care for them…
Comfort and heal, merciful Lord,
all who are in sorrow, need, sickness, or any other trouble.
Give them a firm trust in your goodness;
help those who minister to them;
and bring us all into the joy of your salvation.
Father, hear our prayer,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.