Blessed Jesus, you are strong to save. You hear and make things new, not only through our efforts and overcoming, but also through our weakness- our whimpers and gurgles and sighs, our trembling cries, our silent tears.
Moment of silence
Blessed be your Name.
Divine Healer, when we are surrounded by heartbreak and harm You draw near. You carry us and defend us and make a way.
Name the heartbreak and harm
Blessed be your Name.
Wounded One, Risen One, You understand our pain and the pain of our world. The pain we get. The pain we reap. The pain we sling.
Bring forgiveness, healing, and hope:
For our siblings across the globe who are persecuted for their faith.
For all who are suffering because they do not have access to daily needs.
For all who are suffering due to prejudice, exploitation, war, and tyrannical leaders.
For all who are suffering due to mental or physical illness, addiction, or grief
Offer additional prayers for healing and justice
Blessed Jesus, may Your Kingdom come quickly. May Your will be done now. In this and every moment, help us live Your hope and the prayer you taught us…
You are welcome to use my works in a worship setting without asking permission. It’s always a treat to hear from you if you’re using it. Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in a book, blog, etc.
Prayer for Holy Saturday by Lisa Degrenia Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of Hosts, There are so many things we do not understand
Help us to trust you even when the situation is desperate and out of control
Help us to follow you even when the way unclear
Help us to wait and rest even when every bit of us screams to act
Build in us a faith that perseveres Even when we can’t see you Or feel you near Or understand
Your power and goodness are never diminished Morning is coming
Holy Saturday by Steve Garnaas Holmes A day without purpose or liturgy, vast in its cruel, silent emptiness. Bereft, gutted, regrettable.
A day to sit with myself, my failures, my sorrows, wrap them around me like a shawl.
A day to sit with death, amid life’s flock of losses, feeding the pigeons of grief at my feet.
A day to sit with the world and its shambles, its unfailing choice to ruin itself.
Let the depth of the day deepen, the sea of sorrow swell downward, the dark deeps complete and useless.
Everything empties out. Even grief and guilt are hollow. Even the beating heart has nothing to say.
In the insistent blank let there be no possibility, none: an empty canvas for God.
Linger by Lisa Degrenia Before we get to Easter, we need to linger: in the vulnerability of the basin and the towel at the remembrance and promise of the table in the struggle and betrayal of the garden in the shadows and shouts of injustice at the bloody brutal beautiful cross in the silence of linen and spices and death
You are welcome to use my works in a worship setting without asking permission. It’s always a treat to hear from you if you’re using it. Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in a book, blog, etc.
Steve Garnaas Holmes retains the copyright for his work. I’m grateful for his permission to use his work on my blog. Contact him directly for permission to use his work.
Prayer Based on Luke 7:11-17
Jesus raises the widow’s son
Luke 7:14
Then Jesus came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”
Jesus,
We bow in awe before your mighty power
You defeat the grave
You are victorious over death
Raise us from our too soon tombs
Raise us to life
Your word awakening us
Your Divine breath once more in our lungs
Jesus,
We stand in awe before your great compassion
You defeat our isolation
You are victorious over our poverty
Raise us from the loss of place and people
Raise us to life
Your word making a way for us
Your daily bread once more in our mouths
You meet us where we are
You meet our desperate need
Hallelujah to your mercy, your favor, your presence
Amen
_______________
For the next few months, I’m reading a chapter from the Gospels each day. This is part of the Summer in the Scriptures reading plan sponsored by the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Click Here for the reading plan.
As part of the Facebook group, I’ve been supplying prayers based on the day’s reading. Feel free to post your prayers and observations based on the readings here or there as well.
May the grace of the Gospels, the challenge, and the call, inspire us to great faith and great good works in Jesus’ name. – Lisa <
Dr. Lucy Hone’s statement, “Adversity doesn’t discriminate” captured my heart. It revealed a truth I’d been living for a long time with those I serve as their pastor, the larger community and world I serve, and my own experience.
If adversity is a universal experience, could it be resilience is also universally accessible?
I and Dr. Hone agree. Yes!
After sharing her own experience of crushing loss, Dr. Hone says, “I didn’t need to be told how bad things were. Believe me, I already knew things were truly terrible. What I needed most was hope. I needed a journey through all that anguish, pain, and longing.”
She offers these strategies for rising up from adversity, for accessing resilience.
1. Resilient people know suffering is a part of life for all humans.
2. Resilient people carefully assess situations, knowing what they can and cannot change. We are hardwired to notice the negative. “Our threat focus, our stress response, is permanently dialed up.” Resilient people notice both the negative and the good. Focusing attention on the good, such as practicing gratitude, brings perspective and higher levels of happiness. Finding the good takes intentionality and effort.
3. Resilient people ask themselves, “Is what I’m doing helping me or harming me?” This powerful question provides boundaries and control over decisionmaking.
She closes with, “I won’t pretend that thinking this way is easy. And it doesn’t remove all the pain. But if I’ve learned anything over the last five years, it’s that thinking this way really does help. More than anything it has shown me that it is possible to live and grieve at the same time and for that, I will be always grateful.”
What strategies help you grow and stay resilient?
From the official TED Talk Notes: “Dr. Lucy Hone is a director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience, a research associate at AUT University, a published academic researcher, best-selling author and contributor to Psychology Today, the Sunday Star Times and Next magazine.”
Micah 7:8, ESV
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 ESV
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed
Romans 5:1-5 ESV
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Introducing All Saints Day
Traditionally celebrated on November 1st, or the Sunday closest to it
On All Saints Day, we remember…
We too are saints (1 Corinthians 1:2-3)
Our loved ones who have died
Those who have inspired our faith and led us to Christ
For some, All Saints Day is a day of thanksgiving and gratitude. A day of inspiration. For some, a day of beloved memories. A day of sadness because those memories bring a reminder of grief and loss.
Whatever you are feeling, it’s ok. All those feelings are welcome.
Reading of Matthew 14:1-21, Jesus grieving the death of John the Baptist
Jesus’ relative, John the Baptist, is unjustly imprisoned and brutally murdered. John was executed by a weak man, Herod Antipas. Herod was drunk, aroused, showing off. Herod got caught in a bad place. in order to “keep up appearances” before those who had gathered for his birthday, those he had to lead, those who might report his choice to Rome, Herod had John executed.
John had been a part of Jesus’ life from the very beginning, since before the two of them were even born. They met in their mothers’ wombs. At the meeting, John began jumping and preaching in the wilderness of his mother’s womb that Jesus was the Messiah.
John was family, literally family. If anyone understood who Jesus was and what Jesus was called to do, it was John the Baptist. If anyone understood what Jesus is going through- the sacrifices Jesus was making, the mocking, the confrontations, the homelessness, the misunderstandings, the persecution, it was John and now John is dead.
John’s disciples come to tell Jesus and Jesus is shaken by the loss. He’s grieving deeply. It’s one thing to lose a loved one, it’s another to lose a loved one in such an unjust and brutal way.
What does Jesus do? Jesus gets into a boat and crosses the Sea of Galilee to find a quiet place. But when Jesus arrives he does not find a quiet place. Jesus finds people. Thousands of people.
These folks are also grieving the death of John the Baptist. They’re heartbroken, sick, hungry, and oppressed.
Hoping to find quiet, but instead finding people, what rises up inside Jesus? What would rise up inside of you?
What rises up inside Jesus is compassion. Compassion literally means “suffering with.” He hears their cries alongside his own. He understands their pain because he is in pain. What does this pain do? This pain opens Jesus. Opens his heart in compassion, in empathy, his hands in generosity and Jesus helps.
There’s healing in the helping. He helps. He blesses. He feeds. He listens. He comforts. He heals.
Excerpt from an Instagram Post by Jen Willhoite @cobbleworks
“Jesus let himself be interrupted by the pain of others even as he was suffering, reeling in his own. He took what scraps of food and hope there were and offered it all up to Divine Love. He knew something abundant could come from something threadbare and it seemed he knew it started with honest sharing…with himself, with others, and with the Sacred One. He held it all aloft and the bread and meat grew in abundance. …
Maybe it was healing for Jesus to nourish others when he was aching. [What] if suffering alongside each other and giving our hope to God even if it’s just grieving scraps might be the thing that gets us all through. Maybe the 5,000 were fed and Jesus was fed too. Maybe we’re still being fed today by stories like this. Stories that tell us hope matters. That our pain matters. Our friendships matter. Our cries matter. Our gathering matters. Our willingness to say we’re hurting and also be interrupted by the pain of another all matters.”
Amen! It matters. It all matters.
Jesus was grieving and what rose in him was compassion and generosity and hope-
not bitterness, not revenge, not isolation, not despair
This is the power and glory of our Great God rising in the midst of death. This same power and glory of God are rising in you.
Jesus’ brokenness, the crowd’s brokenness, your brokenness – God gathers it and redeems it all. Broken hearts, broken bodies broken systems, broken bits of bread and fish- God gathers it and redeems it all.
This is our truth – God is good, God is strong, God is near. When we claim it and cling to it, this is what makes us saints.
God’s compassion, generosity, hope rising up in us so we find healing in the helping.
A saint is not a perfect person. Saints are simply people who understand their deep need and turn to God and ask God to bring good out of the pain. That’s what redeeming is- God bringing good out of the pain, out of the brokenness, out of the mess.
Today we remember we are saints. We remember the saints that have gone before us. Claim this life. Say “yes” to it. Place your trust in Jesus and follow him. Be a saint.
And so my brothers and sisters, let us remember who we are in Jesus- wounded healers, saints, set apart by God and for God.
Let us remember our purpose- to lead a devoted life of compassion, generosity, and hope. A life worthy of the calling to which we have been called. A life that inspires faith in others.
Let us recommit ourselves to this life, by first honoring the lives of those who have inspired us-
The heroic and humble who ran the race before us
The martyrs who sacrificed all for the sake of Jesus
And especially those who we have known and loved
who led us to Jesus and encouraged us to deeper faith and service
Let us pray…
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
You surround us with witness after witness to your transforming love
Inspire us and empower us to persevere
Fill our hearts with courage
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
You weep with us in our heartbreak and loss
Comfort us and protect us in our mourning
Fill our souls with hope
Blessed are you, O Lord our God,
You cry out in victory over sin and the grave
Raise us and release us to fulfill your calling
Fill our lives with faithfulness and good works
The message concludes with a prayer consecrating the elements for Holy Communion.
Prayer Based on Luke 7:11-17
Revlisad.com 