Jesus Christ, may your death be my life
and in your dying may I learn how to live.
May your struggles be my rest,
Your human weakness my courage,
Your embarrassment my honor,
Your passion my delight,
Your sadness my joy,
in your humiliation may I be exalted.
In a word, may I find all my blessings in your trials.
Amen.
Peter Faber, SJ
Hearts on Fire
Father in Heaven,
The world is not as it should be.
We are not as we could be.
Have mercy on us.
Darkness hovers over our homes.
Despair has displaced hope.
We listen to lies and illusions
That water our fears and harvest hate.
The world is not as it should be.
We are not as we could be.
Have mercy on us.
Sin has shaped our city.
Our neighbors are isolated
Without friends, without shelter, without food.
Our neighborhoods are divided
With the darkness of inequality and disparity.
The world is not as it should be.
We are not as we could be,
Have mercy on us.
Violence has stained our city’s story.
Places of light now marked with memories of death.
Evil has ended precious lives
In our schools and streets,
In our theatres and groceries
In our nightclubs and churches.
The world is not as it should be.
We are not as we could be.
Have mercy on us.
We lament the darkness and long for Your light.
May your mercy bring healing.
May your grace make us whole.
And may your love bring us at the last
To our eternal home.
Jared Ray Mackey
Lent 2023
Prayer and spirituality feature participation, the complex participation of God and the human, his will and our wills. We do not abandon ourselves to the stream of grace and drown in the ocean of love, losing identity. We do not pull the strings that activate God’s operations in our lives, subjecting God to our assertive identity. We neither manipulate God (active voice) nor are manipulated by God (passive voice). We are involved in the action and participate in its results but do not control or define it (middle voice). Prayer takes place in the middle voice.
Eugene Peterson
The Contemplative Pastor
Holy One,
there is something I wanted to tell you
but there have been errands to run,
bills to pay,
arrangements to make,
meetings to attend,
friends to entertain,
washing to do…
and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you,
and mostly I forget what I’m about,
or why.
O God,
don’t forget me, please,
for the sake of Jesus Christ….
O Father in Heaven,
perhaps you’ve already heard what I wanted to tell you.
What I wanted to ask is
forgive me,
heal me,
increase my courage, please.
Renew in me a little of love and faith,
and a sense of confidence,
and a vision of what it might mean
to live as though you were real,
and I mattered,
and everyone was sister and brother.
What I wanted to ask in my blundering way is
don’t give up on me,
don’t become too sad about me,
but laugh with me,
and try again with me,
and I will with you, too.
What I wanted to ask is
for peace enough to want and work for more,
for joy enough to share,
and for awareness that is keen enough to sense your presence
here,
now,
there,
then,
always.
Ted Loder
Guerrilas of Grace
Adapted and reprinted in Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton