St. Nicolai Notes

EXCHANGES ON THE WAY: LENTEN PRAYERS
Day 33: Sixth Friday
Mark 14:32-42

     Jesus, we are thankful that You have experienced and know what it is like to be distressed and troubled. You know what it is like to be overwhelmed with sorrow. Your experience has enabled You to identify fully with us in our humanity. And You show that, like You, we may pray for release from the most troubling hardships, yet leave our lives in God's care.
     Jesus, we know that your suffering took on a quality that ours cannot. You suffered for us, so that we might more fully experience God's forgiveness and love. You suffered for us so that we might be freed from the power of sin and death. You suffered for us so that our lives might be transformed for thorough fidelity to God's reign. We praise and worship You!
     But we are saddened, Dearest Friend, that your disciples' failure to watch and pray with You heightened your sense of loneliness and abandonment. We are too much like them! We do not stay alert. We do not pray. We do not act on your behalf when it is most necessary that we do so. Enable us to be present with and for You to the extent that your Spirit may assist and energize us. Amen.