Fitting Prayers

The prayers at Mass today were exactly what I needed to hear. In addition to the linguistic imagery itself, the syntax– challenging and elegant, yielding its subtle eloquence after patient meditation– nicely mirrors the difficulty I've found in expressing the nuances of my Lenten pilgrimage (both in prayer and in conversation), as well as the joy and assurance I've found in occasional moments of genuine connection with God, Jesuit brothers, and friends in the course of this particular stage of my journey.

Enlighten, O God of compassion,

The hearts of your children, sanctified by penance,

And in your kindness

Grant those you stir to a sense of devotion

A gracious hearing when they cry out to you.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

One God, for ever and ever.

–Collect, Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Green Hill Park, Worcester MA
April 2011

Attend, almighty God,

To the prayers of your people,

And, as you endow them

With confident hope in your compassion.

Let them feel as ever the effects of your mercy.

Through Christ our Lord.

– Prayer over the People, Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent