A Prayer For the Church in Holy Week

1 Help me, Lord, for there is no godly one left; *

 the faithful have vanished from among us. 

2 Everyone speaks falsely with his neighbor; *

 with a smooth tongue they speak from a double heart.

3 Oh, that the Lord would cut off 

all smooth tongues, * 

and close the lips that utter proud boasts! 

4 Those who say, 

"With our tongue will we prevail; * 

our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" 

5 "Because the needy are oppressed, 

and the poor cry out in misery, 

" I will rise up," says the Lord, 

"and give them the help they long for." 

6 The words of the Lord are pure words, * 

like silver refined from ore and 

purified seven times in the fire.

7 O Lord, watch over us * 

and save us from this generation for ever.

8 The wicked prowl on every side, *

 and that which is worthless 

is highly prized by everyone. Psalm 12

A Prayer for the Church in Holy Week

Unfathomable Creator, you place us in this season

of a story which is both so wondrous and frightening

a passion road which we try to walk tenderly along

finding ourselves falling down and worn out.

You have made us in your image every one of us

yet all things around us are bedeviled and breaking

from copiers which will not print to organs not sounding

we cry out to you as we feel so very much alone.

Our suffering is not like your suffering we know

yet as we polish the brass and shine the silver

we wonder who will notice all the effort we make

and wish we had more hands to help with happy hearts.

You know our sorrows and know we are broken

yet Easter and resurrection will still come to us

help us to be humble enough to await your healing

simple enough to ask for help, leaving all the rest behind.

Heavenly Father, send your renewing spirit 

to your weary priests, exhausted organists

to the frustrated choir directors and hoarse vocalists

so that all may rise us with joy on Easter morning. Amen.