Lord
we’re weary
we long to praise your Holy Name
we long to celebrate the joy of knowing Christ Jesus
we long to gaze at your majestic presence
but it’s hard to feel you
to really know you
for this year, as we travel through Lent
in many levels it feels we’ve never left the Lent we entered last year
our Alleluias have been stifled
we don’t want our worship to just be going through the motions
truly, we long for it to honour you
to waft up to heaven as a pleasing fragrance
for it to be sweeter than honey
really we do
we long for the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts, fill us with awe and love and the whole presence of God
as we pray, as we meditate on your Word
we long for our stifled and hidden alleluias to burst forth
as snowdrops and crocii are bursting forth with a riot of colour out of the bare earth
assist us, God
come to us, Christ
bless us, Spirit
One God three in one and one in three
Holy, Blessed trinity
remind us of the covenant made to Abraham
a covenant we are inheritors of
remind us that, no matter how we feel
no matter how we feel distant from you
you are with us
your promises are true
including the promise, of forgiveness of sins to those who sincerely confess and repent
so we pause, to confess all the times we have failed,
on our own and in the company of others
to follow the path of Christ
longing to be forgiven
may we know, this day, the mercy and grace which is freedom from our sins
that we may genuinely worship this day
and continue to follow Jesus this Lent to the cross of our salvation
Amen