Home

Lent menu 3

3: Third period of prayer

Presence of God

 

As I begin to pray, for a minute or two I remember that God is looking at me and listening to me and loving me.

I pray, ‘O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise’.

Petition

I may ask for a special grace from God this Lent, as I strive to ‘turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel’, I can take a minute now to ask God for this gift.

Picture

I may choose to focus on an image or sacred object that helps me to pray.

Prayer
Or I could picture somebody who cannot pray themselves, because they are ill or troubled, and I could pray the psalm again for them.

As I read the psalm slowly all through, I pause after each few lines. Some people are helped by reading Psalms aloud when this is possible. I might then reread it, pausing the second time at phrases that touch me, repeating them again and again, allowing them to sink into my heart, to refresh me, and to enjoy the words and images. Then I can move on till I find another phrase that I wish to stay with. When I am finished I could return and repeat this method of praying the psalm again as often as I find helpful. Or I could picture somebody I care about, or somebody who cannot pray themselves because they are ill or troubled, and I could pray the psalm again for them. I might also like to move on to the ‘Backdrop’ and ‘Reflections’ that are offered here, and see if these help me to pray.

Psalm 130

Waiting for Divine Redemption

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.

Psalm 130

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

Backdrop

Psalm 130 was written when the Israelites returned from being prisoners in Babylon, and came home to a devastated city and a ruined temple. Their dreams appear to be in shatters, but in the middle of this heartbreak they remember the Lord’s steadfast love. This is called a Psalm of Ascent, of going up. It was recited by pilgrims on the road as they went up to Jerusalem. Then at the temple it was recited by the priests as they went up the fifteen steps before the Temple door. It is a prayer at a time of broken hearts and battered spirits. For Christians this psalm, also called the De Profundis, is used at the time of death and during disasters, when we need to hold firmly onto what is essential.

Reflection
The writer does not wonder if God will come to him, but waits for when God will come.
  • The writer does not wonder if God will come to him, but waits for when God will come. Do I have this sort of faith when I am in the depths, or do I wish to ask for this faith?
  • The Lord does not come immediately to the psalmist, who has to wait, and wait, and wait. The burden is not lifted at once. Suffering can be ‘one long moment’, even when we know it will come to an end like the dawn. When have I been ‘in the depths’?
  • Do I at times hope to bargain with God to have things done in my own time, or can I accept that God answers in God’s time, and in way that I might not expect?
  • Do I find it easy to believe that God listens to me? How easy do I find it to believe that God is full of steadfast love? In the Psalms faith in God is the like trust in God.

Reflection
  • Can I trust that there is forgiveness with the Lord, and that the Lord does not mark my iniquities’? To ‘mark’ iniquities suggests keeping a record in a ledger. Do I fear that this describes how God deals with me?
  • Do I think that I have to earn forgiveness? The psalmist does not seek to earn the Lord’s forgiveness, but to enjoy it. Do I trust the promise of this psalm? Is there a phrase from the psalm that I can repeat again and again, as a prayer, to ask for this trust?
  • This psalm starts as the prayer of one person, and ends as a prayer for a community. The psalmist is assured that the Lord will redeem Israel from the consequences of her sins. Can we pray this psalm for your church community, or some other group, so that we allow God to redeem us?
  • The writer prays ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul waits’. What am I hoping for myself this Easter? What do I hope for ‘more than those who watch for the morning’? Can I name the gifts I hope for myself, and for those for whom I care?

Review of the time of prayer
  • How did the prayer go?
  • What touched my heart? What attracted me? What did I find difficult?
  • Was there something I would like to return to?
  • Was there a phrase of verse that I would like to remember?
  • What notes to myself do I want to make, to be reviewed at the end of the retreat?
of
Bengali |  Català |  Hrvatski |  Dansk |  Suomi |  Deutsch |  Magyar |  Español |  Svenska |  Tiếng Việt
Sacred Space © 2010