Risen One, like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, we struggle to recognize you in the everyday journey of our lives. We seek your wisdom in the midst of the questions we have about the circumstances we find ourselves in—circumstances sometimes beyond our control, but often of our own making.

Open the eyes of our hearts to your work of transformation in and around us. As we walk with you day by day, may your new life be made manifest in us, and in what we say to others. Help us to understand the power of our words to hurt or to heal; give us the graciousness to make all our conversations holy.

Just as we desire that our speaking be holy, may what we attend to be holy as well. We are bombarded with images and language everyday O Christ, that shape our attitudes and behaviors. As you opened the scriptures to the disciples and taught them everything, open our eyes to behold you in your Word, in the beauty of nature, the beauty of another human being and the beauty of sacred art.

And help us to recognize and welcome the stranger in our midst. May our welcome be a celebration of the gifts and graces of persons who like us and unlike us and not merely tolerance.

You were known to the disciples in the breaking of the bread. May your resurrection presence guide us in the decisions we make about what we take into our bodies—especially what we eat and what we drink. Help us to understand our eating and drinking as sacred events, not to be abused or approached mindlessly.

So often we forget, Holy One, that you invite us to abide with you; to have our lives hidden in you. We thank you that you are with us wherever we go, in body or spirit, walking alongside us us in our joys and our concerns.

Amen.

~ Adapted from the Church of Ireland website.
https://www.churchnewsireland.org/wp-content/uploads/Easter-3-.pdf