Office for prayer in connection with the Jewish people
Thursday 3 October 2024
Meditation
The autumn festivals
The autumn festivals will take place this year between October 3rd and 25th.
This period of autumn Jewish feasts is shaped by the Jewish New Year (Roch Hashana) and the day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). It is a time for us Christians to recall our strong and unique spiritual link with the Jewish people.
“The true God upholds his Covenant and his faithfulness.”
This verse sums up the challenge of this Autumn Convocation of the Jewish people (Leviticus 23). Israel is summoned by God to present themselves before Him, the one true GOD, to give an account of the respect He has been given during the past year for the Covenant established with Him on Mount Sinai.
ROSH HASHANA, the Jewish New Year, opens with a test: sure of God’s faithfulness and of His mercy, each person has the chance to review the past year and to ask forgiveness for their transgressions against the Covenant whilst praying (“our Father, our King, have pity on our weakness…”)
So it is that on the tenth day, on YOM KIPPUR, after 25 hours of fasting and prayer, that the divine Word can come down upon the Community: “you are forgiven!”. Yes, God is faithful to those who turn to HIM! And so also it it that there is the joy of living in the “soukka”, in “the arms of God”. The hut is small, with a roof of greenery, as a reminder of the forty years in the desert when God was their only protection.
On the eighth day of Sukkot, after the feast of Simchat Torah, this joy will explode in songs and dances around the scrolls of the TORAH, “Yes, our God really is the God who upholds His Covenant and His faithfulness!”
ROSH HASHANA, YOM KIPPUR, SUKKOT, SIMCHAT TORAH: these festivals can be times when we Christians can realise again that in Jesus we have been grafted on to this unique Covenant, which has never been revoked and is always new.
Intercessions
R. Amen, amen, blessed be the God of Israel
Or another refrain
1. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
you who mourned because of the violence between Cain and Abel,
we pray to you for peace in the Holy Land,
this land where you have chosen to come and join us in our humanity.
2. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
you who made possible the reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers,
for any contempt for your people Israel, forgive us (silence).
We pray to you, Father, to make fraternity grow between the Jewish people and the nations.
3. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
you who brought Israel out of Egypt and made your people free,
give your joy to the Jewish people,
and keep them faithful to your covenant.
4. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
you who united the twelve tribes of Israel around the Torah,
give peace to the Jews who believe in Jesus.
5. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
you who sent your Son Jesus to save us,
pour out your blessing on Christians who are of Jewish descent.
6. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
Father of Jesus Christ,
bring all Christian churches together in unity.
7. Loving Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
– you have given the Jewish people the promise of the coming of the Messiah,
– you have given the Church the expectation of your son’s return.
– in the Holy Spirit we say with the whole Church: “Maranatha, come Lord”.