May 24 Prayer

May 24 Prayer

“Behold your mother,
Mother , behold your son.”

There before the cross of suffering
A mother, a son, a brother, a sister.

A Spoken word of love
To care for one another

We can only love the world as we love
the one before us, the one in our family,
the one we so want to change.

Mary responds freely to love in the midst of her suffering,
To share in her suffering
is to be able to enter another’s pain.

Mary gave birth to Christ,
the mother of the church.
The church which is his body,
‘the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.’

Pause here to wait and gaze upon
the cross with John and Mary.

Hear Jesus’s last words, his last gaze to his mother and his friends.

“Behold your mother, behold your son.”

‘You, O Lord, are gracious and merciful to us.
May we trust as Mary trusted you with her care and receive your peace.

May our hearts be widened to hold the love and suffering of others. To be able to look upon their pain as our own and take it to your cross.

May we be gracious and merciful to those closest to us.
The ones we live with, our extended family we tend to judge.
May we love and care for the ones most difficult to work with and find your cross there.

Fill us with your fullness, the One who fills all things, fill us with your love.

Enlighten our eyes and our hearts to behold one another.

For it is in loving freely here that we will ever be able to love the world.

Amen
John 19:25-30,Eph.1:23
DB