Prayers for Lent & Eastertide

Apr 11

Phaedra Taylor, “Lent #3” (Encaustic on wood, 2009)

Lent represents an extraordinary opportunity to discover new graces through our willing embrace of Spirit-enabled acts of mortification. We fast longer than we thought we were capable. We give more than we thought we had to give away.

And we deny ourselves our usual pleasures and discover that instead of feeling a great and irreparable loss, which we thought we might resent, we feel stronger, more capacious of heart and, by God’s grace, free of certain appetites that slowly but surely have drained us of life. We feel happier, not resentful.

One of the disciplines that I have kept this past Lent, and have continued through the season of Eastertide, is the discipline of writing Collect Prayers. I’ve written about this habit elsewhere, so I won’t say more about it except that it has helped me to remain present to God’s work in my life and in the world at large.

In the face of a temptation to ignore my own experiences of pain, because they feel like a burden that I cannot carry and, perhaps more honestly, won’t carry, or to remain a stranger to the heartache of the world, because it all feels too overwhelming and impossible to make sense of, writing prayers has made it possible for me to remain present.

With each prayer, I sought to capture some aspect of the Gospel narratives. The goal, as with all Collect Prayers, was to create a link, as economically as possible, between biblical story and personal experience. The goal was to avoid generic statements at all costs. The goal was to keep things vivid, concrete, memorable, which means that you needed to pay attention to the sound of language, among other things.

While I never fussed too long with any one prayer, I did keep giving myself permission, which I sometimes did out loud, not to rush the prayer. The goal wasn’t to churn out prayers. What point would that serve? The goal was to write something that could be prayed again and again, and always somehow to feel fresh.

The goal, also, I should say (and this is a lesson that took me awhile to figure out) was never to draw attention to the maker of the prayer. It was not about producing sophisticated prayers with clever language; it was not about giving the definitive word on the matter, so that you could somehow be recognized for having written the prayer to end all prayers; and, God help us, it wasn’t about getting credit, because it wasn’t a damn term paper or public performance.

The goal, with all such “prayers of the people,” is to get out of the way, so that a person can feel like the prayer is fully their own, speaking in some fashion the yearning of their own hearts, and this requires language that says what needs saying, no more and no less, and that gently carries the one praying to the end, in such a way that he or she can say amen with all their heart.

And then, of course, the hope is that they’ll be able to do it again the next time that they pray it, with the same sense of freshness, because the new day always brings with it fresh sorrows and losses that demand a sincere request of the heart to the God who is always listening, always willingly assisting us in our prayers, always entrusting us to fellow members of Christ’s Body, so that we can bear one another’s burdens in and through prayer.

Praying in such a way, with a measure of regularity and openness to others, requires, I find, a good deal of courage. We need courage, infused with a strong dose of hope, to believe that God is in fact listening to us, rather than busy elsewhere, engaged in allegedly more important business.

And we need courage in order to entrust ourselves, along with our deepest fears and shames and insecurities, to other people who might, in love, not take advantage of our vulnerable disclosures but rather participate in the Spirit’s work of re-ordering our neural pathways that often cause us to think faith-less, fatalistic thoughts; in the Spirit’s work of transforming our physiological instincts that secretly betray us to our worst selves; and in the Spirit’s work to reform our disordered loves and deepest fears, in the deepest parts of our soul, which often cause us to sell ourselves and others short of the grace that Jesus makes willingly available to them that ask and receive it.

Lastly, while I don’t doubt that I’ll want to revise these Lenten and Eastertide prayers at some point in the future, for now I’ll share this small collection of Collect Prayers in their original form and trust that they might be useful to folks, if not now (for surely all of life has a Lenten and Easter quality about it), then perhaps at the time of our return to Lent and Easter, when we have officially completed this present cycle in the liturgical calendar.

My prayer, for you, in the end, is that these prayers might help you to know and love God with all your heart, and if you’re not quite there, that they might help you to want to want to know and love God with all your heart.

PRAYERS FOR LENT (2021):

O Lord, you who are neither surprised nor ashamed of our neediness, we offer you our needy bodies, hearts and minds on this first Sunday of Lent and ask that you would speak your healing word to us, so that we might be reassured of your sufficient care and be at peace in our souls. We pray this in the name of the One sees us fully. Amen.

O Lord, you who daily bear our burdens, strengthen our hands and expand our heart’s capacity to bear one another’s burdens, so that we might offer your generous care to friend and neighbor alike who may feel crushed under by their own burdens. We pray this in the name of the One whose burden is light. Amen.

O Lord, you who discipline those you love, grant me a special grace this Lent to embrace the disciplines that would enable me to love you with all of my body, so that my body might be free from the passions that draw me away from you and be filled with the passions that draw me near and that would make it easier to fulfill your good purposes for me as your disciple. In your name I pray. Amen.

O Lord, you who let your body to be taken, broken and given away for the life of the world, we pray that you would take our own broken bodies—broken by sickness, sorrow, shame, age or abuse—and bless them so that they might be instruments of blessing to our neighbors. In your name. Amen.

O Lord, you who are mighty to save, grant me pardon from past sins, courage to resist all present temptations, and protection against all evils to come, so that I might taste the victory of your resurrection power today and commend your saving grace to others who face their own troubles and temptations. In your powerful name I pray. Amen.

O Lord, you who are the ineffable sea of love and the fountain of blessing, water our hearts this day with your grace, so that we might overflow with care for our neighbors who are dry in their souls and parched in their desire for you. We pray this in the name of the One who is our Living Water. Amen.

O Lord, you who fasted in the wilderness in order to leave us an example in which we should follow, grant, I pray, that the mortification of my body might result in the nourishment of my soul, and that the mortification of my soul might result in a body that is alert to your purposes, so that both my body and my soul might be more readily disposed to your service. In your name. Amen.

O Lord, you who bear in your body the wounds of the cross in perpetuity, we pray today for those who are deprived of bodily health, damaged by bodily abuse, worn down by bodily labors, ashamed of their bodily shape, assaulted because of the color of their body and discouraged by the deterioration of their body, that you would administer to them the healing powers of your own body and assure them by your Spirit of the dignity of their bodies. In the name of the One whose body redeems and reconciles all human bodies. Amen.

O Lord, you who invite us to die to ourselves so that we might find ourselves anew, I pray that I would not be too full of to-do lists and deadlines and anxieties during this season of Lent so that there is no space for you to do your work of transformation in me, but grant me, I pray, the grace to welcome your Spirit’s work to mortify my flesh and to breathe the renewing life of Jesus in me, so that I might participate in his sufferings and know the power of his resurrection during this forty-day pilgrimage. In the name of the One who heals us by his wounds. Amen.

A PALM SUNDAY PRAYER:

O Lord, you who were cheered and jeered by the very same crowd, have mercy, I pray, on my own duplicitous ways: confessing one sin openly, while hiding another; blessing God out of one side of my mouth, while cursing my neighbor out of the other; smiling in public but raging in private; lauding justice but denying it in practice; loving God and money equally much; and all other sins besides. Grant me the grace of integrity, of being one thing through and through, no matter what the cost. In the name of the One who loves us to the end. Amen.

PRAYERS FOR GOOD FRIDAY:

O Lord, who you met your mother on the way to the cross but who could not prevent the sword from piercing her heart, we pray that you would grant us the consolation of sympathetic friends when we too feel abandoned or unloved by God, so that we may never be alone in our griefs. Amen.

Oh Lord, you who were not embarrassed to weep in public, may we, like the women of Jerusalem, weep with sorrow at the sight of your suffering and not be ashamed to weep for our own sin that required your sacrifice on the cross. In the name of the One who keeps all our tears. Amen.

O Lord, you who meet us in the face of the stranger, grant us, we pray, the heart of a Veronica to see in every stranger we meet today, whether they be hungry or thirsty, naked or sick, in prison or alone, the “true image” of Christ, worthy of service, so that we might be counted worthy of your name. Amen.

O Lord, you whose kindness exceeds our capacity to grasp, we pray, along with the disciples who deserted you, that you would have mercy on our cowardly ways, so that we might not run away from you in the face of fear but draw near to the One who loves us without measure. In your merciful name we pray. Amen.

O Lord, you who repeatedly suffered unjust insults and impositions, grant, I pray, in the face of every temptation to become indifferent to others’ burdens and to resent the need to carry a burden that is not my own, the humility of Simon of Cyrene who carried a cross that wasn’t his own and who discovered a savior that he did not expect, so that I might see Christ in every act of service on behalf of a stranger. Amen.

AN EASTER SUNDAY PRAYER:

O Lord, you whom death could not conquer, nor the tomb imprison, banish from us, we pray, the fear of the grave, deliver us from all evil, raise up our frail bodies and speak a word of hope to our hopeless hearts, so that we might be your resurrection people this day. In your unimaginably powerful name we pray. Amen!

PRAYERS FOR EASTERTIDE:

O Lord, you who make room in your family for the doubters, the fearful, the troubled and the failures, though I cannot see your wounded body with my own eyes, I pray that you would enfold me in the care of your Body, so that I too might proclaim in faith “My Lord and my God!” In your gracious name. Amen.

Resurrected Lord, you who command us to preach the gospel to all of creation, may we speak your word of blessing today to the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the fish in the sea, and the creepy-crawlies as well, so that all creation might know your renewing life. We pray this in the name of the Lord of all creatures, great and small. Amen.

O Lord, you who startled the disciples with your resurrected presence, startle us out of our own overfamiliarity with the gospel, so that the good news of your risen life might become weird and wonderful again to us this day. In your name we pray. Amen.

O Lord, you who entrusted the first word about your resurrection to Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, Salome and the other women, may we believe the word that you have entrusted to the women in our community, so that we might not be rebuked for our unbelief. Amen.

Resurrected Lord, you who revealed yourself in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread and who delighted to have breakfast with your disciples, may we see you not only in the Eucharistic meal that we share with your Body but also in our own quotidian meals, so that we might delight in each other's company as you do in ours. We pray this in the name of the One whose flesh and blood is the life of the world. Amen.

Resurrected Lord, you who opened the eyes of the disciples so that they might recognize your presence with them, open my eyes, I pray, so that I might not be blind to your presence at home, at work and in my exchanges with everyone I meet this day. In your name. Amen.

Resurrected Lord, you who told Peter to mind his own business and not to worry about what happened to John, deliver us, we pray, from the infection of what-about-him-ism and help us to trust that you will do right by all of us in the end. In your name. Amen.