suffering

for those suffering the anguish of inner darkness

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

photo via pixabay CC0

 
Lord Jesus, 
as you bowed your head and died,
a great darkness covered the land.
 
We lay before you
the despair of all
who find life
without meaning or purpose,
who suffer the anguish
of inner darkness
that can only lead them 
to self-destruction and death.
 
Lord,
in your passion, you too
felt abandoned, isolated, derelict.
 
You are one
with all who suffer
pain and torment
of body and mind.
 
Be to them the light
that has never been mastered.
Pierce the darkness
which surrounds and engulfs them,
so that they may know
within themselves
acceptance, forgiveness, and peace.
 
We pray for those who,
through the suicide
of one close to them,
suffer the emptiness of loss
and the burden of untold guilt.
May they know
your gift of acceptance,
so that they may be freed
from self-reproach
and mutual recrimination,
and find in the pattern
of your dying and rising,
new understanding, and purpose
for their lives.
 
Neville Smith, retired Anglican priest and hospital chaplain
 
______________________
 
 
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles,
    but the Lord delivers him from them all

Prayer professing faith

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
painting by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1881 via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
God, Creator, you planned from the beginning –
    telling evil that the woman’s offspring would crush it.
You called to Abraham from his land on the margins to follow you. 
He and three more generations relied on you to live in a strange land. 
Later, you led the descendants of Israel out of Egypt, out of bondage. 
You led your people with judges like Deborah, 
    with kings like David whose family included migrants, 
    and with prophets like Daniel who lived as minorities in strange lands. 
In all these ways you remind us to focus our hope on your salvation 
    rather than in an earth-bound culture. 
And when it seemed that you were absent, you sent your Only Son.

Transgressing our sense of power, your Son was born as the baby of a virgin. 
Tempted in the ways we still are – riches, fame, and glory – 
    he chose a life of humble service, service to others even while he was betrayed. 
He drank the full cup of suffering. 
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice and tortured. 
Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make people holy through his own blood.

When he died, he crossed the border of hell. 
Three days later God raised him from the grave, exchanging death for life. 
He appeared to Mary, Mary Magdelen, Salome, and Joanna; 
    he walked with Celopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus 
    to those on the margins. 
Then he appeared to Peter and the twelve, 
Christ, raised from the dead, presents us with salvation.
 
complied by Claudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship in New York City
 
___________________________
 
 
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, 
    “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 
     and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations,
     beginning at Jerusalem.”
 

wholeness of mind

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image by Elyas Pasban via Unsplash
 
 
Lord Jesus Christ,
you healed those who suffered
in mind as well as body.
Look in your compassion 
on people among us who are mentally ill.
 
We pray for all
    who are driven by depression to the depths of despair
    who attempt to end their own lives
    who are victims of obsession
    who are persecuted by the voices they hear
    who live in a world of their own
    who are violent or withdrawn
    who are plagued by religious delusions.
 
Take from them all unreality.
Help them to know that in the depths
    you search for them
  and that in your presence
    you hold them secure.
Grant to them wholeness of mind
so that they may be at peace,
    at one with themselves
    and at one with you.
We ask this for your name’s sake.
 
Neville Smith
 
________________________
 
 
Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, 
    teaching in the synagogues 
    and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. 
And he healed every kind of disease and illness. 
News about him spread as far as Syria, 
    and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. 
And whatever their sickness or disease, 
    or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—
    he healed them all.

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An Unfathomable Mystery

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
ecce homo by Honoré Daumier, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
God, we understand the gospel 
    to be an incomprehensible reversal
    of all righteous and pious thinking.
You declare yourself to be guilty to the world
    and thereby extinguish the guilt of the world.
You yourself take the humiliating path of reconciliation
    and thereby set the world free.
You want to be guilty of our guilt
    and take upon yourself the punishment and suffering
    that this guilt brought to us.
You stand in for godlessness, love stands in for hate,
    the Holy One for the sinner.
Now there is no longer any godlessness, any hate,
    that you have not taken upon yourself, 
    suffered and atoned for.
Now there is no more reality and no more world 
    that is not reconciled with you and in peace.
That is what you did in your beloved Son Jesus Christ.
 
“Behold the man!”
See the incarnate God,
    the unfathomable mystery of your love for the world.
You love human beings.
You love the world – 
    not ideal human beings, but people as they are,
    not an ideal world, but the real world.
 
after Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 – 1945, German  theologian and martyr
 
__________________________
 
 
For this is how God loved the world: 
He gave his one and only Son, 
    so that everyone who believes in him 
    will not perish but have eternal life.

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A final meditation

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Sir Thomas More, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
Give me grace, good Lord
To count the world as nothing,
To set my mind firmly on you
And not to hang on what people say;
To be content to be alone,
Not to long for worldly company,
Little by little to throw off the world completely
And rid my mind of all its business;
Not to long to hear of any worldly things;
Gladly to be thinking of you,
Pitifully to call for your help,
To depend on your comfort,
Busily to work to love you;
To know my own worthlessness and wretchedness,
To humble and abase myself under your mighty hand,
To lament my past sins,
To suffer adversity patiently, to purge them,
Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
To be joyful for troubles,
To walk the narrow way that leads to life,
To bear the Cross with Christ,
To keep the final hour in mind,
To have always before my eyes my death,
    which is always at hand,
To make death no stranger to me,
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell,
To pray for pardon before the judge comes;
To keep continually in mind the passion 
    that Christ suffered for me,
For his benefits unceasingly to give him thanks;
To buy back the time that I have wasted before,
To refrain from futile chatter,
To reject idle frivolity,
To cut out unnecessary entertainments,
To count the loss of worldly possessions ,
    friends, liberty and life itself as absolutely nothing,
    for the winning of Christ;
To consider my worst enemies my best friends,
For Joseph’s brothers could never have done him
    as much good with their love and favor
    as they did with their malice and hatred.
 
Thomas More, 1478-1535, English statesman, beheaded by Henry VIII
________________________
 
 
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. 
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 
Be wretched and mourn and weep. 
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
 

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Loss is indeed our gain

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
The pushing and shoving of the world is endless.
    We are pushed and shoved.
    And we do our fair share of pushing and shoving
        in our great anxiety.
    And in the middle of that
        you have set down your beloved suffering son
        who was like a sheep led to slaughter
        who opened not his mouth.
    We seem not able,
    so we ask you to create the spaces in our life
    where we may ponder his suffering
    and your summons for us to suffer with him,
    suspecting that suffering is the only way to come to newness.
So we pray for your church in these Lenten days,
    when we are driven to denial —
        not to notice the suffering,
        not to engage it,
        not to acknowledge it.
So be that way of truth among us
    that we should not deceive ourselves.
That we shall see that loss is indeed our gain.
We give you thanks for that mystery from which we live.
Amen.
 
Walter Brueggemann, 1933 -,  American Protestant Old Testament theologian
_____________________________
 
 
For to this you have been called, 
    because Christ also suffered for you, 
    leaving you an example, 
so that you might follow in his steps.

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O Jesus, crucified, have mercy upon me

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image / Luca Giarelli, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons
 
O Jesus, poor and abject, unknown and despised,
    have mercy upon me, and let me not be ashamed to follow thee.
O Jesus, hated, calumniated, and persecuted,
    have mercy upon me, and make me content to be as my master.
O Jesus, blasphemed, accused, and wrongfully condemned,
    have mercy upon me, and teach me to endure the contradiction of sinners.
O Jesus, clothed with a habit of reproach and shame,
    have mercy upon me, and let me not seek my own glory.
O Jesus, insulted mocked, and spit upon,
    have mercy upon me, and let me not faint in the fiery trial.
O Jesus, crowned with thorns and hailed in derision;
O Jesus, burdened with our sins and the curses of the people;
O Jesus, affronted, outraged, buffeted,
    overwhelmed with injuries, griefs and humiliations;
O Jesus, hanging on the accursed tree, bowing the head, giving up the ghost,
    have mercy upon me,
    and conform my whole soul to thy holy, humble, suffering Spirit.
 
John Wesley, 1703-1791, English churchman and founder of Methodism
 
_______________________________
 
 
It was now about the sixth hour,
    and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 
    while the sun’s light failed. 
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said,
    “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” 
And having said this he breathed his last.

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Let hope be my hunch, Lord

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
– Rubem Alves
Lord, I’m so easily weighed down
by my struggles, my burdens
and the harsh realities of daily life…

Sometimes, I think I’ll lose hope in you
    in tomorrow,
    in others,
    and in myself
so I need you to help me trust,
to help me hope
that the peace I imagine,
the peace I pray for,
the peace you promise
is stronger and greater
than any of my problems…
 
Let hope be my hunch, Lord:
    that my future’s not limited
        by my present trials;
    that the troubles of the moment
        won’t have the last word;
    that my burdens are truly
        a prelude to joy…
 
Give me hope
    in the midst of suffering, Lord:
I know that’s the path of your love,
    I know it’s the way to peace…

Help me see, Lord,
how my troubles prepare me today
    for your coming, the advent of peace,
for the gift of your presence,
    the harvest of hope,
        my hunch proved right by your grace…
 
Protect me, Lord, while I’m awake
and watch over me while I asleep
that awake, I might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace…
Amen.
 
Fr. Austin Fleming, Roman Catholic Priest serving near Boston, MA  
Concord Pastor
 
______________________________
 
 
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.

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Thank You for the trials

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
Photo by Dorothy Lin on Unsplash
 
Lord, I do not see many people who are happy.
I see more people who are vexed by troubles 
    and overcome with anguish at their difficulties. . . .
Sometimes, I too am derailed by trials. . . .
I am tempted to see trials as only negative 
    because I like to think that I’m in control. . . .
I am tempted to see trials as negative 
    because I tend to think that this life matters most. . . .
Remind me that there is a limit to my perspective and wisdom. . . .
I do not see all there is to see.
Remind me that Jesus suffered and He was completely innocent. . . .
If He suffered, I too may experience suffering.
Remind me that this world is temporary. . . .
I will not be satisfied in this life.
So I thank You today for the trials You have allowed in my life. . . .
I thank You for being my fortress and strength. . . .
    and for giving me perseverance. . . .
Thank You for what these trials are doing in me –
    developing maturity and completeness.
Amen.
 
Kurt Bjorklund, 1968- , American Minister and author of
Prayers for Today A Yearlong Journey of Devotional Prayer

_________________
 
 
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds,
   because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance

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take our lives and transform them

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

 

O Lord, take all our sorrows 
    and use them to show us the nature of your joy.
Take all our sins and, forgiving them,
    use them to show us the ways of true pleasantness 
                                and the path to true peace.
Take all our broken purposes and disappointed hopes 
    and use them to make your perfect rainbow arch.
Take all our clouds of sadness and calamity
    and from them make your sunset glories.
Take our night
    and make it bright with stars.
Take our ill-health and pain 
    until they accomplish in your purpose
    as much as health could achieve.
Take us as we are with impulses, strivings, longings
    so often frustrated and thwarted,
    and even with what is broken and imperfect,
  make your dreams come true,
through him who made of human life a sacrament, 
    of thorns a crown, of a cross a throne,
    even through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Leslie D. Weatherhead, 1893-1976, London Minister
 
__________________________
 
 
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time
    are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

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