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Prayer for Holy Saturday
Have you Left?
This Holy Saturday, this time of death in life, is lived by many in our society for many reasons.
As Mary and the others left the place of crucifixion they entered a place of grief, which is a place of dark numbness, no feeling risked, no future dared.
Holy God, where have you roamed, why have you left your creation?
The Hebrew people moaned in the wilderness.
What benefit is a grave in the wilderness?
By the waters of Babylon, they wept.
They couldn’t sing to the Lord in a foreign land.
Holy God, where have you roamed, why have you left your creation?
There is no Gospel for today. There is no good news.
There is no purpose. Today there is no tomorrow.
And yesterday is too terrible for memories to comfort.
There is a void in me, in my community, in the world.
Holy God, where have you roamed, why have you left your creation?
The desperate for food and drink cannot live before they die.
The elderly of our land dwell isolated in their homes.
The young hit out, to gain at least some human responses.
And drugs numb the pain of both the rebel and the polite suburb.
Holy God, where have you roamed, why have you left your creation?
The heart sinks to a deep fear when I hear of illness,
cancer, HIV and AIDS, and cuts me off from friends and family.
My heart shrinks from those in the dark tunnel of mental torment.
There is this long waiting, this empty waiting for me and for them.
Holy God, where have you roamed, why have you left your creation?
The heart cries out. Can it dream of crying out to you ever again, Holy God? John Ll Humphreys
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Wales, Scottland
Let Justice Roll Down, CAFOD Prayer
for Easter Sunday
It Is the Lord
John 21:1-7
Bringing life from death,
Bringing abundance from nothing,
Bringing confidence from doubt,
It is the Lord.
Loving the poor, the weak, the failed,
Loving the foreigner, the stranger, the unwanted,
Loving the people, both friends and opponents,
It is the Lord.
Calling us to take the risk to help change the world,
Calling us to step out in deep waters,
Calling us to faith,
It is the Lord.
Changing the ordinary to the extraordinary,
Changing an obstacle into an opportunity,
Changing our weakness into great strength,
It is the Lord.
Adapted from a prayer by the Brentwood Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace, England, Let Justice Roll Down, CAFOD
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Prayer
for Good Friday
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Deliver Us and Give us Peace
Lord Jesus,
by your cross and resurrection
deliver us
by your witness to the truth
deliver us
by your passion and death
deliver us
by your victory over the grave
deliver us
from the lust of power
deliver us
from the conspiracy of silence
deliver us
from the worship of weapons
deliver us
from the slaughter of innocents
deliver us
from the nightmare of hunger
deliver us
from the peace that is no peace
deliver us
from security that is no security
deliver us
from the politics of terror
deliver us
from the plundering of the earth's resources
deliver us
from the dispossession of the poor
deliver us
from the despair of this age
deliver us
by the light of the gospel
give us peace
by the good news for the poor
give us peace
by your healing of our wounds
give us peace
by faith in your word
give us peace
by hunger and thirst for justice
give us peace
by the coming of your kingdom
give us peace
Amen.
– John Davies, England -
Let Justice Roll Down, CAFOD
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