NIGHT PRAYER: Monday of Holy Week

Tonight our prayer begins 

    with wise counsel from John Predmore, SJ.,

        followed by a song and my Night Prayer...                

    We have to give ourselves permission
    to be weak enough to enter into Holy Week.

    Stop pretending that you can hold everything together.
    No one is telling you that you have to be strong.

    Instead, you need to be real.

    You do not need to put on a special face to others 
    to show you are a Christian. 

    Stop perpetuating illusions 
    about the way others tell you to be.

    This week is about your relationship with Jesus Christ  

    and what he needs most is for you to be a real person 

    – just as you are –

    even if you are weak, vulnerable, filled with chaos, 

    and bombarded by a variety of conflicting emotions.

    If this is who you are, 
    then this is the 'you' Jesus wants to meet 
    on this journey to the cross.

- John Predmore, S.J.

Tonight's song isn't particularly Lenten or Paschal but it's an old favorite - and in light of John's prayer above,  this song is worth praying every day this week...  My annotation of the lyrics follow the widget.

Take, O Take Me As I Am by John Bell

 

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Take, O take me as I am, Lord,

    not as I wish I might have been,

    not as I wish I were,

    not as I wanted to be today,

    not as I hope to be tomorrow

    but just as I am today:

        the person who stands before you

        knowing there's nothing about me

        you don't already know...

Take me to your Cross as I am, Lord...

 

Summon out what I shall be, Lord,

    Summon to the surface what I'm afraid to face

        and pardon what needs mercy

        mend what has been  broken,

        and heal my every wound...

    Summon from my depths, Lord,

        the person you created,

        for whom you died and rose,

        who waits upon your kindness...

Summon me just as I am, Lord,

    to stand at the foot of your Cross...

Set your seal upon my heart, Lord,
    and with the touch of your gentle hand: 

        seal my soul with mercy,
        seal my heart with love,
        seal my thoughts with wisdom
        and my soul with saving grace... 

Mark my soul with the sign of your Cross, Lord,

    and set your seal upon my heart... 

 

And live in me, Lord...

    dwell with me in peace,

    my friend and close companion:

        be a housemate in my soul

        and the keeper of my heart...

Come into my heart as it beats today

    and stay with me, Lord, all the days of my life...

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