Lord, have mercy.
We feel gut-punched and out of breath, darkness is like a
cloak.
In a daze, we try to do normal things but we feel sure
that life will never be “normal" again.
Death is palpable and offensive, a stench in our nostrils
that is at the heart of everything wrong.
It feels as if all that is good and life-giving is lost
to us. It feels as if all we’ve ever felt is the deep heart-wrenching pain of
loss!
Lord, have mercy
Have mercy, Lord - visit us in our loneliness, grief and
confusion! Don’t forget about us! See our desolation, know our desperation! If
you don’t reveal yourself in this place of ash and sulphur, we shall never rise
again. They tell us that you know what it is to suffer. Bring your experience
of suffering, pain and loss to us and gently teach us how to live in the midst
of raging death.
In the place where we have no more words, speak to us in
the silence.
If we don’t know you better, we won’t make it. Help us
know you Lord; reveal yourself again and open our hearts. Give us courage to
stay open to you and others.
Forgive us for trying to walk this path alone. Sometimes
the hardest thing to do is to pick up the phone and let somebody in. We fear rejection
and misunderstanding and the bane of trite answers. Give us safe friends Lord,
who can let us hurt and be silent with us and weep. Give us friends who know
the weight of what we feel and the weight of what we have lost.
Help us in the little things, Lord. The now momentous
tasks of getting up and showering, fixing breakfast and driving to work. These
common things used to be so trivial, now we can barely manage them. Help us get
through the day; help us get through the next 15 minutes.
Lord, have mercy
