When post communion prayers go bad!

I don't know about you but most of those who go to church tend to do the responses by looking at the sheet and taking the aural clue from the person leading. A 'for instance' would be when after communion has been served the president (not 'president' not 'celebrant' for it is the people of God who 'celebrate' as the president presides!) does whatever post-communion prayer (it's after the communion so the name is a confirmation rather than hint perhaps) is set for the day and then leads the people into their prayer after communion.

Now the prayer the people often do when it come to their bit goes like this:

Almighty God,
we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
Through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice.
Strengthen us in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.

And the post-communion prayer today was:

Almighty God,
you have given your only Son to be for us both a sacrifice for sin
and also an example of godly life:
give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive these his inestimable gifts,
and also daily endeavour to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So perhaps you can't blame the congregation for jumping in with their prayer because after all, the 'Almighty God' cue was there and even had I gone for the 'let us pray' cue - this would have undoubtedly had the same result!

What I perhaps should have done is said, 'And now, Me alone saying it. Let us pray . . . '

And gone for it hoping I'd done enough!

But it was funny as I began and found myself overtaken, beaten with a stick and left as the congregation did their bit.

But it made me laugh anyway :-)