In April 2021 the second wave of Covid-19 swept through India. Many of us lost someone we loved. All of us know someone who did. Soon it will be the first year since many tragic things happened—a season of many anniversaries of loss, with grief triggered, sorrow remembered and tragedy relived. I wrote this prayer for all who will face such an anniversary. It is a prayer to prepare our hearts to grieve honestly, intentionally, and hopefully.
Leader
Lord,
At this time last year, grief came to visit us
in a way that left us permanently changed.
It became the dividing line,
between the life before, and the much heavier life after.
Things that mattered much earlier,
do not seem to matter as much today.
It feels as if our souls have aged ten years in one year.
As we get nearer to the anniversary of loss,
it feels as if our hearts are circling back
to the beginning of our great sorrow,
like athletes on a race track
running as fast as they can,
only to return to the place from which they started.
People:
Lord, we cannot do this alone.
Leader:
Lord, we do not ask
for the remains of our grief to be purged
or for our grief to be wiped away.
Rather, we ask that our hearts and minds
would be like cups washed and cleansed
by the vision of resurrection,
so we can taste of this grief
without the dross of despair
and the stain of unbelief.
People:
Lord, we rely on you.
Leader:
As our minds take us back
in wild and wandering ways
through hallways of sometimes surprising,
sometimes familiar, and sometimes long-forgotten memories,
we ask for our hearts
to sense your presence,
walking with us,
standing with us,
weeping with us,
whispering into our hearts
this beautiful, unassailable truth,
“Because I live, you also will live”
People:
Lord, your words are healing words.
Leader:
We ask that grief would not harden our hearts
but it would soften them,
making us more tender
more compassionate, more humble,
more sensitive to the needs of others,
and more conscious of the frailty of life
and the fragility of our hearts,
so we might in every way put away all hope in ourselves
and put our hope in you,
where it is safest
and we are strongest.
People:
Lord, set our hearts on things above.
Leader:
Lord, we ask that eternity
would take its rightful place in our imaginations,
that as we walk through a string of anniversaries,
the sting of these dates on a calendar
would not feel like salt burning our wounds
but they would be redeemed,
and they would become
signposts on a highway,
even bright lights on a dark road
that point to the eternal horizon,
and deepen our longing for the return of the King,
who himself tasted death for everyone,
so we can be heirs of the life that is truly life.
People:
Lord, fix our eyes on Jesus.
Leader:
Let the hurt we feel
become a springboard
that lifts us into your presence
so our hearts become more alive,
more aware, more alert
to the working of your power
in our inner beings
so our deepest wounds
can feel the soft touch
of your healing hand.
Amen.
