Daily Prayer

Take a moment before you begin this morning and just slowly and meaningfully pray this prayer.

Jesus,
Lord of self-emptying love,
Crucified and now exalted.
May all knees bend before you,
May all toungues confess you,
To the glory of God our Father.
Amen

Daily Scripture: Psalm 31:9-16

Find the above scripture in your bible and read slowly – you might want to read it out loud. You can read it here.

Lenten Reflection

Psalm 31 is a lament. A third of the psalms are laments. They are a difficult read, full of raw emotion and pain. We tend to shy away from such expressions of personal anguish and suffering. But David the Psalmist does the opposite. He doesn’t deny his feelings, or shrug his shoulders and get on with it. He accepts the difficulty of his situation, connects with his emotions and really “feels”. He gives voice to those feelings. It is not self-pity, but an acknowledgement of his pain. And in his pain he turns towards the God he knows to be faithful, merciful and loving. He is able to live in the paradox  of deeply painful circumstances and connect with his deeply loving Father, bringing his pain and suffering to Him.

Emma Dipper, Lecturer in the theology of suffering and persecution at All Nations Christian College says “Share your suffering with your neighbours so that they meet Jesus in you. This might sound strange, but when God’s people are honest in their pain but still cling on to hope and faith – that is the greatest bridge to the gospel. People come to Jesus when they need meaning in their chaos.”

Lenten Quotes

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world”.

| C.S Lewis

“Lament is what happens when people ask ‘why’? and don’t get an answer”.

| N.T Wright

Lenten Prayer: God of Consolation

God of consolation,
Surely you count in heaven,
Just as we count here on earth,
In shock and in sorrow,
The souls sent back to You,
One-by-one,
The dead from the COVID pandemic,
As the ones become tens,
The tens become hundreds,
The hundreds become thousands,
The thousands become ten-thousands
And then hundred-thousands,
Each soul, a heartbreak,
Each soul, a life denied.

God of wisdom,
Surely in the halls of divine justice
You are assembling the courts,
Calling witnesses to testify,
To proclaim
The compassion of some
And the callousness of others
As we’ve struggled to cope.
The souls taken too soon,
Whose funerals were lonely,
Who didn’t need to die,
Who died alone,
Will tell their stories
When You judge
Our triumphs
And our failures
In these hours of need.

God of healing, an end to this pandemic,
And all illness and disease.
Bless those who stand in service to humanity.
Bless those who grieve.
Bless the dead,
So that their souls are bound up in the bond of life eternal.
And grant those still afflicted
With disease or trauma
A completed and lasting healing,
One-by-one,
Until suffering ceases,
And we can stop counting the dead,
In heaven And on earth.

|Alden Solovy: Prayers from the Jewish Community

Lenten Song: How Long?

Closing Blessing

May you discover,
As you trace the footsteps of the Christ,
And follow the bending river of the Spirit,
Down through the terrain of this age,
Down along faith’s hard paths,
And down towards the voice of Love,
May you discover the companionship
Of many fellow pilgrims.

May you receive,
As you are summoned by Christ
And invited by the Spirit,
Up towards the landscapes of the age to come,
Up across the highway of Hope,
And up towards the voice of Love,
May you receive a share in His exaltation
And honour,

To the glory of God, the Father,
Amen.

Evening Zoom Reflection at 9pm

We will be meeting tonight on Zoom to reflect on this together. You would be most welcome to join us. We start at 9pm and finish at 9:20pm. Maybe bring a Bible and a journal if you have them.

We are usually on a few moments before for a chat. Click here to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84743926286

We would love to make this a shared learning experience as much as possible so therefore please consider adding any thoughts, questions and insights that might arise for you in the comments section below. We would love to hear what God is up to in this time!