A Concord Pastor Comments

4/2/26

Chag Pesach samech!

To all my Jewish friends and neighbors,

Chag Pesach samech!

Happy Passover!

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Pause for Prayer: HOLY THURSDAY

Our Humble God by Howard Banks

On Holy Thursday night at the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, we hear in the gospel how Jesus washed the feet of his friends and commanded them to do likewise:

If I, therefore, the master and teacher,
   have washed your feet,
      you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
   so that as I have done for you,
      you should also do...

Pause for Prayer on Holy Thursday

Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet

at the end of a long day’s work

at home, at the office,

at the plant or on the road...

And you're waiting to wash my feet

if they haven’t moved much all day long

because they throb with the pain of arthritis...

or because the sticks I call my legs

just don’t move as well as they used to...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet

no matter how bad they smell or how ugly they are,

regardless of aging toenails or corns or bunions.

Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet

because they’re my feet - and you love them...

You wait because you love me

- from the tip of my toes to the top of my head...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash away

whatever has stained my heart

You wait to wash away my sins, especially the ones

that embarrass and shame me....

Jesus, you're waiting to wash away

the fears and anxieties I carry

by the bushel and backpack

'til I'm bent over with worry’s weight

hunching and burdening my shoulders...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash away

the bad dreams that haunt my sleep

and the desires that derail me

as I try to lead a good life...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash away

the prejudice that keeps me

from loving and washing the feet

of others who aren’t just like me...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash my hands clean

of the selfishness and greed

that lead me to treat others

unfairly, unjustly, dishonestly...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash my hands

of their violence,

of any harm they’ve threatened,

of any damage they've done...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash away

whatever comes between you and me,

whatever comes between me and my neighbor,

whatever comes between me

and becoming the person you call me to be...

Jesus, you're waiting to wash my feet

because they’re my feet - and you love them

and because you love me

even, and especially,

when I don't love myself...

And as you wash my feet, Lord,

help me learn to wash the feet

of all I meet and know...

Jesus waits to wash my feet

because he loves me

from the tip of my toes

to the top of my head...

Amen.

Today's Pause for Prayer offers three versions of Where Charity and Love Prevail, a hymn sung every year at the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper.

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Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.

With grateful joy and holy fear
His charity we learn;
Let us with heart and mind and soul
now love him in return.

Forgive we now each other’s faults
as we our faults confess;
And let us love each other well
in Christian holiness.

Let strife among us be unknown,
let all contention cease;
Be his the glory that we seek,
be ours his holy peace.

Let us recall that in our midst
dwells God’s begotten Son;
As members of his body joined,
we are in Christ made one.

No race or creed can love exclude,
if honored be God’s name;
Our family embraces all
whose Father is the same.

A remarkable choral setting with the composer at the keyboard:

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And another musical setting, in Latin, from Taize:

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Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est
(Where there are charity and love, there is God)

Ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.

(Where there is love, there is God)

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4/1/26

NIGHT PRAYER: Wednesday in Holy Week

For Night Prayer, we'll pick up on the theme from this morning's Pause for Prayer which was based on this scripture:

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,
"What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" They paid him thirty pieces of silver and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over. When it was evening, Jesus reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, "Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me." Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?" He said in reply, "He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me.. It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" He answered, "You have said so..."

Reflection

On the night before he died, Jesus was betrayed by the worst in us all... It's easy to point the finger at Judas - in fact it's too easy... Each of us, at one time or another,
plays one of the roles in the story of the suffering and death of Jesus - and that includes the role of Judas who betrayed his Lord...

Prayer
I come this night, Lord, with my heart aware

of how I've betrayed you
in thought, word and deed
and in my failure to think, to speak, to act...

You are my Lord but you are also my brother,

my companion and my friend
and many are the ways I've been unfaithful
to you and all you offer me...

Sometimes I plot

   - if not against you -
then against the grace and the blessings
   you never cease to offer me...

Some days, some nights, I fail to honor
   the love in which you hold me,
   the embrace with which you protect me,
   the strength with which you shield me...

Judas was bold in what he did, Lord:
   my betrayals are often born of my weakness,
   my lukewarm faith,

my timid witness,

my cowardly spirit...

I don't want to face the fact that I betray you, Lord

- but I know I have, I know I do -
and so I pray to you this night:

   have mercy on me, a sinner...

Make me more faithful to you, Lord,
   to your word, your wisdom
and to the steadfast love
   you never fail to offer me...

I trust you, Lord, and pray that you'll trust me
   to return to you this holy week
with my whole heart, my mind and soul,

in thought and word and deed...

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.

Forgive Us, Lord by Nathan Surgenor

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Forgive me Lord for I have sinned

I let temptation walk right in

And now I need Your grace again

Forgive me Father

Forgive me Lord when I ignore

Your signs of love that seek to warn

That I've been down this road before

Forgive me Father

Remember Your mercy - Remember Your grace

Oh Lord of truth and life

And as we hold fast to Your loving embrace

Forgive us Father

Forgive me Lord when I excuse

Those things that damage and abuse

Oh give me wisdom to refuse

To trust them Father

Chorus

We need Your love We need Your life

We need Your truth and grace in us

So breakthrough our hearts

Reshape our minds

Come have Your way oh Lord with us

For we are the dust, children of sin

But You are the hope in each new day

So renew our lives And shatter our night

Rescue us Father as we pray

Chorus

Father Forgive me Lord for all I've done

That goes against "Your kingdom come"

Oh may my will and Yours be one

My Heavenly Father

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Pause for Prayer: Wednesday in Holy Week

I've been developing and posting this Pause for Prayer on Wednesday of Holy Week since 2008. It's longer than a usual daily post and includes the following:

- some background on Spy Wednesday

- some thoughts on betrayal

- Rufus Wainwright's wrenching musical setting

of the Lamb of God

- my Pause for Prayer entry

- and another (gentler, healing) setting of the Lamb of God

by Samuel Barber

Spy Wednesday: Just about everyone, believer and non-believer alike, identifies Judas with betrayal. Wednesday of Holy Week is called Spy Wednesday because on this day at mass we hear the story of Judas' traitorous scheming:

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over... On the evening of the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”

Betrayal is an ugly word...

Here are two hard questions:

who has betrayed me?

by whom have I been betrayed?

What wounds, what scars, what sorrow

has betrayal left in my life?

in the lives of those whom I've betrayed?

Fr. Aidan Kavanagh spoke of Holy Thursday as

the night in which Jesus was betrayed

- by the worst in us all...

That's a discomforting perspective on Judas' betrayal:

it's easy to point an accusing finger at Judas

- not so easy to accuse myself...

On the night Jesus was betrayed,

Judas stood in for all of us,

for all of us who have betrayed

our God and our neighbor...

And the next day, Jesus, innocent and without sin,

stood in for us,

carrying on his shoulders

and suffering in his wounds

the burden of all our infidelities,

our sins - and our betrayals...

On the Cross,

Jesus, the Lamb of God

takes away the sins of the world...

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:

have mercy on us!

Here's Rufus Wainwright's contemporary setting of the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). The opening sounds here drill into our hearts, our souls, to precisely the place where the Lord's mercy meets us: in our sins and betrayal of God and of others. While Wainwright's music might help us image Judas plotting against Jesus - it doesn't abandon us to Judas' despair - rather, it moves us beyond to the consolation of the One who takes our sins away, finally resolving in great peace: dona nobis pacem (give us peace).

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Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:
have mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: miserere nobis.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:

have mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:
grant us peace.

Pause for Prayer

With the light of your truth, Lord,

open my heart and help me be honest

in seeing how I've betrayed you:

how I've taken your mercy and love for granted...

how I've presumed upon your forgiveness...

how, out of loyalty to the crowd,

the latest fad or myself

I've betrayed you in thought, word and deed...

With the light of your truth, Lord,

open my heart and help me be honest

in seeing how I've betrayed

my family, friends and colleagues

at home, at work, at school, in my community...

how I've betrayed my neighbor

with rumors and gossip...

how I've betrayed the poor and hungry
with my greedy and wasteful ways...

how I've betrayed the truth

with my lies and cheating...

With the light of your truth, Lord,

open my heart and help me be honest

in seeing how I've betrayed myself:

how I've been dishonest with and about
the person you made me to be...

how I've betrayed my own word

in being unfaithful...

how I've betrayed your image within me,

the image in which you created me,

by choosing the cheap and the tawdry...

With the light of your truth, Lord,

open my heart and help me be honest

in seeing how I, like Judas, hand you over

for money and prestige,

out of pride and in fear,

in selfishness and presumption,
and in my vain, self-serving efforts

to win the praise of others...

Forgive me the times I've betrayed, you, Lord...

Forgive me the times I've betrayed my neighbor...

And help me forgive, Lord,

those who have betrayed me...

Amen.

And finally... here are some healing sounds

from Samuel Barber's much gentler setting of Agnus Dei
performed by the incomparable Ensemble Altera

If a widget doesn't appear below, click here!

have mercy on us.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi: dona nobis pacem.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world:
grant us peace.

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3/31/26

NIGHT PRAYER: Tuesday in Holy Week

In this holy week, Lord,

we remember how - for our sakes -

you were betrayed,

falsely accused,

arrested,

judged,

sentenced,

scourged,

spat upon,

mocked,

crowned with thorns,

stripped of your garments,

humiliated,

burdened by the Cross,

crucified,

pierced by a lance

and buried in a borrowed grave...

All of this, Lord,

for our sakes,

for the forgiveness of our sins:

you offered your life,

your mercy and your love

that we might have life

and have it to the full...

You did none of this to condemn us, Lord,

but only that we might be saved...

In this holy week, help us remember

that God so loved the world

that he gave us you, his only Son

that whoever believes in you

might not perish

but have eternal life...

God so loved the world...

Be with us, Lord, as we lie awake,

and watch over us while we sleep

that awake, we might keep watch with you

and asleep, rest in your peace...

Amen.

God So Loved the World by John Stainer

performed by the Sunday 7PM Choir

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God so loved the world,
God so loved the world,
That he gave his only begotten son,
That whoso believeth,
Believeth in him should not perish,
Should not perish
But have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son
Into the world to condemn the world,
God sent not his Son
Into the world to condemn the world,
But that the world through him might be saved.

God so loved the world,
God so loved the world,
That he gave his only begotten son,
That whoso believeth,
Believeth in him should not perish,
Should not perish
But have everlasting life.

God so loved the world

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