Christ on the Cross
This beautiful and compelling rendition of the Lord’s prayer was posted by the Society of the Sacred Heart. I thought that it made a great addition to our Lenten collection of prayers.
Our God who is in heaven,
And all of us here on earth;
The hungry, the oppressed, the excluded.
Holy is your name.
May your reign come.
May your reign come and your will be done:
In our choice to struggle with the complexities of this world,
And to confront greed and the desire for power in our selves,
In our nation and in the global community.
May your reign come.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Bread that we are called to share,
Bread that you have given us abundantly
And that we must distribute fairly, ensuring security for all.
May your reign come.
Forgive us our trespasses;
Times we have turned away from the struggles
Of other people and countries,
Times when we have thought only of our own security.
May your reign come.
Lead us not into temptation;
The temptation to close our minds, ears, and eyes
To the unfair global systems that create
Larger and larger gaps between the rich and the poor;
The temptation to think it is too difficult
To bring about more just alternatives.
May your reign come.
Deliver us from evil;
The evil of a world where violence happens in your name,
Where wealth for a few us more important
Than economic rights for all,
Where gates and barriers between people
Are so hard to bring down
May your reign come.
May your reign come, for yours is the kingdom,
the power and the glory forever and ever. AMEN!
3 comments
Reblogged this on onbeingmindful and commented:
Beautiful…and challenging.
It’s a small point– but does anyone use the word “complexities” in their prayers? Honestly, language like this is distracting for me. Like suddenly I’m not reading words addressed to God, I’m reading an undergrad’s social science paper.
Can we have prayers that express contemporary ideas — but never distance us from the One we address?
Tracy I am sorry to hear that the word complexities distracted you enough to make this comment. I think that words like this are still widely used by some people in everyday life. To be honest I am not even sure how long ago the prayer was written so it may date back to an earlier time.
However I would love to see you rewrite the prayer using language that would appeal to you more