Access Blessing
(Editors note: This prayer specifically address the blessing of items used to facilitate access, such as elevators and ramps.)
WELCOME
OPENING PRAYER
Priest: Let us pray.
Living and true God, you created all that is good and holy. Be close to us, your servants, who gather here today. Be our constant help and protection. Enable us to reach out lovingly to all your children, to show understanding and awareness, comfort and consolation, justice and equality, so that together we may participate fully in parish life and worship.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever.
All: Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Mark 2:1-12
When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak this way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”-he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
SILENT REFLECTION
BLESSING
Those who can may extend their hand as the priest recites the blessing.
Priest: Creator God, you give us all good things. You know our needs and fulfill our desires. You protect us when we are fragile and give us courage for each new day. You give us strength when we are weak and humility when we are boastful.
Bless this new [e.g., elevator, ramp, hearing enhancement system] and those who will use it. May it open up a world of possibilities. May it bring worshipers to our assembly, students to your saving Word, and seekers to the divine love that awaits them.
May we never take for granted any of our gifts, especially the gift of each other. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen
Priest sprinkles the [elevator, ramp, hearing enhancement system, etc.] with holy water.
INTERCESSIONS
Priest: Confident that we are all God’s children let us approach him with our petitions.
Response: Lord, make us one.
Minister: For creativity and sensitivity in breaking down barriers in attitude and architecture, we pray. (Response)
That our parish community may continue Jesus’ mission of love for people with disabilities, offering appropriate support and services, we pray. (Response)
That people with disabilities may respond with trust to parish efforts to involve them more fully in the life of the Church, we pray. (Response)
That we may be grateful for the gifts and abilities that all people can share with our church and our community, we pray. (Response)
That neighborhoods will open their hearts and help people with disabilities, especially those that hinder our growth in God’s love, we pray. (Response)
God of love, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church that we offer in faith. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
Priest: Gathering our prayer and praise into one, let us offer the prayer that Christ himself taught us to pray…
All: Our Father…
SIGN OF PEACE
Priest: Let us offer one another a sign of Christ’s peace.
(This blessing, which was developed by Dr. Richard Strife of the Office of Worship in the Diocese of Lansing, was originally printed in Jubilee Days: The Jubilee Day for Persons with Disabilities [Washington, DC: National Catholic Partnership on Disability, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2000], 8.)
