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Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us. Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us.
O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Grant us thy peace.
O Christ, hear us. O Christ, hear us.
Lord, have mercy upon us. Kyrie eleison.
Christ, have mercy upon us. or Christe eleison.
Lord, have mercy upon us. Kyrie eleison
I John 1:8-10 (The Message) If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—simply come clean about them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.
You did it. You have prayed through The Great Litany. We end this prayer as we began, seeking the mercy of Jesus. Believe me, we need to seek His mercy this every day, while we take time to reflect and repent, rest and be restored.. You may have just lost your latest battle with the world, the flesh and the devil. Honestly, you may have even switched sides in the midst of it all. You collapse in your chair, discouraged and defeated, exhausted and exasperated, sad and sorrowful, so much so that you can’t even pray.
Ever so slowly, the questions come. What just happened to me ? How did I get here ? How did I get it soooo wrong ? What in the world am I going to do now ? Not much gets answered , not much gets done; you just sit… staring downward…and sigh.
Thankfully, God doesn’t leave you there, and know this, He has been sitting right beside you and is there still. That small still voice will eventually break through, usually with the same question He posed to the prophet Elijah, “What are you doing here ?” Ist Kings 19:9. If you get a chance, read about Elijah’s experience in 1 King 18 and 19. The story is one of fear and freaking out, and then one faith found through reflection, repentance and restoration,. This is the same journey we are taking this Lenten season.
When God asks that question of you, what do you say ? For me, sometimes I am just silent, from shame and pain. Sometimes I cry, sometimes I complain, and sometimes I get honest and admit to the Lord; I screwed up. At last He shows me the path to repentance and restoration. In the worst of those times, the most I can get out in prayer is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Thanks be to God, most times that is all He requires;
“I can work with that.”, He whispers, and He starts to put me back together.
Then and there we must get up, open our hearts to Jesus and let Him make us clean.
Peace.
Phil Parsons
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From Rodger:
My favorite part about the Elijah story out there in the wilderness during that 40 day slog (sound familiar?) to Mt. Horeb? The angel, saying “Get up, Elijah.” Get up and eat; quit feeling sorry for yourself and get ready for the journey. It’s a story that reminds me of that guy named Ananias in Acts chapter 9. Everyone remembers Paul’s conversion, being blinded on the road, hearing Jesus’ voice, losing his sight and having to be led by the hand into Damascus… But few people remember this unknown disciple named Ananias that we hear about here and then never hear from again. Do we really understand that without him, the church would not HAVE a Paul? But do we also see how vociferously Ananias wants to get out of this little chore?
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel;
I don’t know about any of you reading these; but I’ve found in my own life that God’s response to my little “pity parties” is usually something just like this: “GET UP!” “EAT!” “GO!” We have things to do together and as long as you understand that I am God and you are not, we’ll do just fine! Like Phil said, “I can work with that.” But we have to quit sitting and sulking, and get up first.