A Lenten prayer by Walter Brueggemann

Catholic New Times, Feb 13, 2005

A Lenten prayer by Walter Brueggemann

   Loss is indeed our gain

   The pushing and the shoving of the world is endless
   We are pushed and shoved.
   And we do our fair of pushing and shoving
   in our great anxiety.
   And in the middle of that
   you have set down your beloved suffering son
   who was like a sheep led to slaughter
   who opened not his mouth.
   We seem not able,
   so we ask you to create spaces in our life
   where we may ponder his suffering
   and your summons for us to suffer with him,
   suspecting that suffering is the only way to come to newness
   So we pray for your church in these Lenten days,
   when we are driven to denial-not
   to notice the suffering,
   not to engage it,
   not to acknowledge it.
   So be that way of truth among us
   that we should not deceive ourselves.
   That we shall see that loss is indeed our gain.
   We give you thanks for that mystery from which we live.
   Amen.

Well known theologian Walter Brueggemann is the author of several on the Hebrew scriptures. This is taken from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in