restore us, Lord... a litany of images

This Lent I have truly enjoyed taking part of a #LentPhotoaDay2016 creative initiative that I came across online. The idea is that one image -- based on one given word -- became the center of my prayer each day.

I may not have done it every day – and I confess that I didn’t always follow the published words suggested for each day. But I certainly enjoyed engaging with images as a way to ponder on and pray with throughout this Lent.

All my photos – and the words assigned to each image – were posted on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, and often on Twitter.  Here they are, for those of you who missed it, all together in one post!

As we begin this Holy EasterTriddum, these three days in the Church’s year marked with services of remembrance, fasting and prayer, please know that I am praying for each one of you and your families. 

And in order to enter fully into the moment, I will be offline until Easter week.

How splendid the cross of Christ!

It brings life, not death;

light, not darkness;

Paradise, not its loss.

It is the wood on which the Lord,

like a great warrior,

was wounded in hands and feet and side,

but healed thereby our wounds.

A tree had destroyed us,

a tree now brought us life.

                                                     ~Theodore of Studios

+   +   +

“The real voyage of discovery consists 

not in seeking new landscapes 

but in having new eyes.”

                                         ~Marcel Proust

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JOURNEY

 MIGHTY

REFUGE

  

HANDS/LOVE

 

GATHER

VISION

FAITH / DEVOTION

FREEDOM

JOY

HOME

HEALING

EMPTINESS

SEEDS

RESTORE

  

WITNESS

BELOVED

BALANCE

SILENCE

PERSPECTIVE

OPENNESS

WELCOME

PRESENCE

TRANSFORMATION

EXPECTATION

SOLIDARITY

HOPE

  

PRAYER

restore us, Lord... a litany of Lent

I have posted the words to this hymn/prayer before – but I do love it so, so here it is… once again:

Litany for the Season of Lent

Let us pray...

                        as this holy season of Lent gives way to the Holy Triduum: 

Lord, have mercy           

                  

·    We have not loved you with our whole heart and mind and strength:

·    We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves:

·    We have not forgiven others as we have been forgiven:

·    We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ has served:

·    We confess our unfaithfulness, our pride, hypocrisy, and impatience:

·    We confess our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves:

·    For our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and our dishonesty in daily life and work:

·    For our negligence in prayer and worship:

·    For our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty:

·    For our lack of charity toward our neighbors, for prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us:

·    For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us:

·    Restore us, Lord, and let your anger depart from us:

·    Accomplish in us the work of your creation:

·    By the cross and passion of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord:

·    And bring us with your saints to the joy of his resurrection:

[Adapted from The Book of Common Prayer]

photo: San Alfonso Retreat House, Long Branch, NJ

© María Ruiz Scaperlanda