 |
| The Empty Chair by Dena Cardwell |
In my parish tonight we had our annual gathering for those who find the holidays to be a difficult time. Thanksgiving is still a week away but it's a day that has a way of touching our minds and hearts long before a turkey is put in the oven for roasting.
For those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, Thanksgiving and Christmas (especially the "first" of each) can be particularly hard to experience. Nothing can make these moments easy but prayer can offer a path to walk through these days with greater peace and even opportunities for healing.
I'm posting this prayer a week before Thanksgiving because it might help to sit with it for a while, to pray it over several days.
Some might find it helpful to use a prayer like this as the blessing before Thanksgiving Day dinner. Others might find it helpful to pray it alone, or to share copies of it with other family members and friends.
The Lord was a man well acquainted with grief: no stranger was he to a broken heart. He is with us in our pain as surely as he is with those whom he has welcomed to his arms of peace.
In those same everlasting arms he gathers us this Thanksgiving...
Dear God,
There is an empty chair at our table,
an ache in our hearts
and tears on our faces.
We may try to shield one another
from the grief we bear
but we cannot hide it from you.
We pray for (names)
whose presence we miss
in these homecoming days.
Open our hearts and minds
to the healing and warmth
of the light of your presence.
We pray, Lord, and we trust
that those we miss
that those we miss
have found their place at your table,
their home in your heart.
Open our hearts to joyful memories
of the love we shared
with those who have gone before us.
Help us tell the stories
that make present the past
and bring us close again
to those we miss.
to those we miss.
Teach us to lean on each other
and on you, Lord,
for the strength we need
to walk through difficult times.
Give us quiet moments
with you, with our thoughts,
with our memories and prayers.
Be with us, Lord,
and hold us in your arms
even as you hold those
who have gone before us.
Help us to trust that one day
we shall be with those we love
when your mercy gathers us together
in the joy of the life you promise us.
who have gone before us.
Help us to trust that one day
we shall be with those we love
when your mercy gathers us together
in the joy of the life you promise us.
This is the day you have made, Lord:
help us to rejoice in it
and in the promise of your peace.
Amen.
Tweet
Subscribe to A Concord Pastor Comments
Just this morning at prayer, I felt the weight of our first Thanksgiving without my sister-in-law bearing down on me, ever harder. I pray in the living room and I glanced over into the next room, the dining room and literally started crying when I saw her chair.
ReplyDeleteSo this prayer truly spoke to me and no doubt to so many, today.
Thank you for doing this. I will write to you to find out more about the service.
It wasn't a service, Fran - more of a workshop. We do it each year before Thanksgiving and it's conducted by my pastoral associate (who also directs our grief ministry group) and a woman in the parish who's a professional counselor.
ReplyDeleteThis prayer was shared with me by my friend Kim Robichaud Zipay who attended your church when she lived in the area and when she returns to visit family.
ReplyDeleteI thank her and you for these beautiful words and will read them to my family at our holiday gathering next week as we are without our Mother, Nina, this year. She passed on to to be with our Lord and Savior in February and we are all feeling the grief of her passing and absence during this time.
Again, thank you so much!!
God Bless
Mary Galles
Omaha, NE
Mary, I'm grateful that Kim shared my prayer with you and that you have found it helpful - I hope your family benefits from it on Thanksgiving Day.
ReplyDeleteI'm always pleased when readers pass on what they find here - thank you, Kim!