Praying with refugees
Resources help bring the experience of refugees and asylum seekers into your prayer.
Daily prayer
We pray for all those who are working for justice and peace around the world. We ask that they might be your hands and feet on the earth.
Amen
Pray with us this Lent
This year, refugee friends have written prayers for our 2023 Lent Calendar. The prayers are in their own words, and reflect intentions for themselves, other refugee friends, our society and the world as a whole.
On the home page, you’ll see the responsorial psalm for each day. Click on a date and you’ll find a prayer from a refugee friend alongside an invitation to #Do1Thing to support refugees each day.
Thank you for praying alongside and for us this Lent – we hope you too find this prayer calendar useful.
Prayer for Ukraine
We hold in our hearts the people of Ukraine as they stand in danger. We ask for peace and reconciliation. Conscious that thousands are likely to be uprooted, we pray for those who seek refuge, that they might find welcome and bridges to sanctuary.
Amen.
The Way of the Cross
Praying the Stations of the Cross is a traditional way of praying during Lent. We pray this familiar prayer to be with Jesus Christ who walked this journey, carrying the cross, the instrument of his death, out of love and commitment to us.
We have developed these Stations of the Cross meditations to aid your prayer during Lent and Holy Week. You can use this resource as a Parish Group, school, as a family, or individually.
Listen now on Pray as you Go website
Pray As You Go Examen Audio Resource
We have partnered with JRS/USA and Pray As You Go to create an audio resource to help you pray an Examen to reflect on the experience of refugees.
The Examen prayer is a popular method of praying developed by St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. The prayer is focused on reflecting God’s presence in a particular experience. We have worked to create an Examen to help you prayerfully reflect on the experience of refugees.
Find more here.
Hold a prayer service for refugees
Would you like to hold a service to gather you community to pray for refugees? JRS UK have created a template service which you can use in its current form or adapt to fit a particular occasion. If you would like to speak to a member of the team to get some advice about holding a prayer service, email: uk@jrs.net
Download the Order of Service as a Word Document.
Download the Order of Service as a PDF.
Prayers of Intercession
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JRS UK regularly shares prayers of intercession online for our supporters to join with us in prayer. These prayers are a way for us to join together and pray for those things that affect our refugee friends and other situations that need our prayer around the world.
A collection of all our previous prayers can be found here.
Pray with us this Advent
Our refugee friends, volunteers and staff have collaborated to prepare two resources for prayer during this season, which we hope inspire you and offer you space to reflect alongside refugees.
The first is our Online Advent Calendar, written by our refugee friends.We’ve shared our refugee friends’ words and voices with you directly; many of the prayers echo the beautiful spoken and sung prayer traditions our friends come from. In particular, we’d like to say a special thank you to our Women’s Prayer Circle for sharing their intentions with us. You can follow the JRS Advent Calendar on Facebook.
The second resource is a series of reflections for the Mass readings of the Sundays of Advent and Christmas Day. These have been thoughtfully prepared by volunteers from across JRS, incorporating their experiences of walking alongside refugee friends. Subscribe here and each Saturday we’ll send you an email with the reflection for Sunday.
