On Sundays, Night Prayer takes its lead from some element from the day's liturgy. Today is the Third Sunday of Lent, the half-way point of this season, a day often called "Latetare (Latin for Rejoice!) Sunday.... In an email this morning, a friend reminded me of how in Advent, I have in my homily sometimes broken into song with "We Need A Little Christmas" from the musical, "Mame!" (Video) He mused that in the days at hand, "We Need a Little Easter!" I thought that to be a great connection with Laetare Sunday - thus tonight's prayer...
It's true, Lord:
We need a little Easter!
This Earth we call our common home thirsts
for a springtime of renewal and waits
for the sun to rise with light and warmth
to coax new growth
from what's lain buried in cold ground
these long, dark wintry months...
Humanity's spirit, Lord,
needs a little Easter!
The world's people hunger
for Passover's bread of affliction*
to be shared as the bread of freedom;
for the paschal dough of Jesus' bread
to rise in our communion...
And our nation's tortured soul, Lord
- needs a little Easter!
We need to be raised up - and out
of what splits and divides us;
we need to be delivered, renewed
as those who claim, In God we trust;
we need to know once more
that all that rises must converge...
We need the earth to shake again
and shudder in amazement
that you have conquered sin and death:
our sin and our death;
that you have risen from the grave
of selfishness and envy, of grudge and greed,
of lust and hate, of lies and threats,
of all that has entombed us
in our prejudice and pride...
We need a little Easter, Lord
- we need a lot of Easter, Lord!
We need the peace you offered us
in laying down your life;
we need the grace that saves us
in your rising from the dead;
we need the life that can be ours
if we but rise with you...
Oh, yes - we need a little Easter, Lord,
that we might rise again
with you and in your peace...
Protect us, Lord while we're awake
and watch over us while we sleep
that awake, we might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace...
Amen.
* In Jewish tradition, Passover matzo is called "the bread of affliction" — of
suffering — and also "the bread of freedom" Those are two main themes of
the story of Passover ... fleeing oppression and finding liberation.
I Am the Bread of Life by Susanne Toolan, RSM
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