Hello Prayer Bench newsletter friends,
Today I want to share with you a taster for the Holy Week series of reflections and prayers offered through the Prayer Bench shop. You can register as an individual or as a group if you wish to distribute to others in your group or community of faith.
(All who received the Lent retreats, “The Pull of God,” will automatically receive the Holy Week daily emails.)
Introducing the Prayer Bench Holy Week series.
“And Yet”
Scripture: Psalm 118:19-29
“Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Living God.”
- Psalm 118:19 (Gafney)
This is the structure of the daily email you can expect daily, beginning Palm Sunday to Easter morning.
I draw your attention to a few details. You can read the full scripture reading above by tapping on the scripture passage. It brings you to Bible Gateway and the New Revised Standard Version. You can change versions and explore it in other translations. Of course, you can use your own bible.
I select one verse each day for closer reflection. Sometimes I use a translation provided by Dr. Wilda C. Gafney in her new book, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church: A Multi-Gospel Single-Year Lectionary. I am enriched by her “God Names and Titles for the Divine” and use those in our daily prayer.
Our theme is “And Yet.” I am meditating on a quote from Elie Weisel, who survived the horror of the Holocaust death camps and wrote several books, including Night. I believe the quote is from an interview a few years ago. I wrote it in my journal at the time but didn’t properly note the source. I came across it recently and its wisdom is heartening for this time of upheaval as we linger through the effects of a pandemic, of war in the Ukraine, of violence and racism and other signs of upheaval.
“And yet. These are my two favourite words, applicable to every situation, be it happy or bleak. The sun is rising? And yet it will set. A night of anguish? And yet it too, will pass. The important thing is to shun resignation, to refuse to wallow in sterile fatalism.”
The events of Holy Week invite us into a new consciousness of Love. The scriptures support us, dare us, embolden us. We enter in. And yet, give thanks.
I sit here with an open heart. I know the risk, HOLY PRESENCE. Your teaching changes me at the deepest level of my being. I am active in creating a new and hope-filled future. Amen.