Lord Jesus,
I thank You for the moments of inspiration that come to me when it seems I need it most. Thank You for life itself, even as challenging as it is, for...well, it should be obvious, correct?
I thank You for those saints, visionaries, and fathers of your Church, and for the rich symbolism found in our sacred rituals and Tradition. Without this, we would find ourselves foundering worse than we already are.
In Your inexhaustible mercy and superabundant love You have given us the opportunity to walk in Your footsteps. For some that might mean a geographic pilgrimage to the places in which You lived and ministered long ago. For most of us, including me, it means stepping outside of our box in space and time to unite with You through the insight given to us through Your Holy Spirit.
In this last week before Easter is observed, I pray that I (and many others) cheer and shout for joy as you make Your humble but still royal entry into the Holy City.
May we eat at Your table, partaking in the bread and wine that has become Your Body and Blood, Your Soul and Divinity.
May we follow you into our chapels, our Garden of Gethsemani, to pray, keep watch, and learn and understand the way of suffering You take in our stead.
May we understand that the stark emptiness of our church altars represent the humiliation You endured - and continue to endure - as You are stripped of Your royal dignity, and are scourged and beaten mercilessly.
May we discover in our reading of the accounts of Your Passion and Death that we, too, are confused and afraid. Some of us still turn away from the repulsive thoughts of the senseless actions of others - especially when it happens in the name of your Father in Heaven. May we find ourselves in that place and time when it was asked in the midst of a mob, Which 'son of a father' do you want released to you? That we, too, in our weaknesses so far removed from the actual event, cry out for Your crucifixion.
May we understand that your words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, should in and of themselves have been sufficient for our ultimate salvation; but in the end, it would not satisfy our bloodlust.
May we have the courage to remain at the foot of Your Cross, alongside the Apostle John, and the Virgin Mary, your - and now our - Mother.
May we dutifully and lovingly pause at Your tomb, intended for someone else but would never be used for its original purpose.
May we keep vigil in the most profound way, recalling the history of our salvation and recognize Your rising as the Light of all lights.
May we courageously. yet humbly, witness and proclaim that You are risen and among us still.
May we keep all of this in our hearts as the celebration of the Week That Changed the World ends and life returns to 'normal'...
No - May You light the way to establish or renew or make of our lives a new and different sense of what is 'normal.' That is what You did everything for.
May the holy angels bring this prayer before You, Lord Jesus; Who lives and reigns together with the Father and the Holy Spirit - one God, forever and ever. Amen.
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