NIGHT PRAYER: Friday 3/22

Night Prayer on Fridays in Lent will focus on different images of the face of Jesus. Since beginning this series I knew that tonight's image would be the suffering face of Jesus but I wanted to be careful choosing an image.  While there are many graphic paintings of Christ's suffering, it has always struck me that the scriptures offer only spare, restrained descriptions of Christ's pain and suffering - perhaps because the gospels were written in the light of the resurrection.  I've chosen an image by portraitist Laur Iduc  which I believe reveals the physical as well as the spiritual suffering and abandonment of Jesus on the Cross.

 

Jesus, my brother,

    in the suffering of your Cross

    you took on your shoulders

    the weight of my sins and offenses,

    the heft of my faults and my failings... 

Jesus, my friend,

    when you shouldered your Cross

    you bore the brunt of my pride and resentments,

    my temper and anger, my lies and deceit...

 

Jesus, my Lord,

    the Cross you took up scraped and bruised your flesh

    with the splinters of my indiscretions,

    my hasty, foolish and imprudent choices...

Jesus, my brother, my friend, my Lord,

    you carried me on your shoulders that day,

    you took on the weight of my unfaithful heart

        to save and redeem me, to mend and to heal me,

        to free and forgive me of all my sins,

    that I might have life I don't deserve,

        won by your love, 

        sealed in your blood,

        given for me 

        on the arms of your Cross...

 

O Jesus, Son of the living God:

    have mercy on me, a sinner...

Protect me, Lord, while I'm awake

    and watch over me while I sleep

that awake, I might keep watch with you

    and asleep, rest in your peace.

Amen.

What Wondrous Love Is This  arranged by Robert Scholz

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1. What wondrous love is this,
O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse
for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

2. When I was sinking down,
sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down
beneath God’'s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown
for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

3. To God and to the Lamb,
I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb
Who is the great “I Am”;
While millions join the theme,
I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this?

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