Daily Prayer

They went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed,

God of life,
be with me tonight
as I look around
at all the faces
illuminated in candlelight,
each light separate,
but each light coming from
the one light
of the risen Christ.
Help me to see the
one Body of Christ
that I belong to--
the communion of saints
spanning heaven and earth.

Father, help me
to recognize as well
all the collective sorrows
in your assembly,
all the ways we bind ourselves--
and are bound by others
and by human history and society--
into a tomb of sin, selfishness,
fear, and death.

In the face of all that, Father,
Help me to listen to the readings.
Help me to hear the story of how
you reach out to us with the
power to heal and to save.
Help me join myself
to the elect all over the world
who will be baptized this night.
As the waters of rebirth
wash over them,
help me to remember that
these waters have
also washed over me.
As the fragrance of the oils
fills the church,
Help me to remember that
I have received
the same anointing.
As they approach the banquet,
help me join them with joy--
for through the Spirit’s power,
we are all the risen Christ
in the world,
being fed on his
body and blood,
and becoming
his body and blood for others.

Above all, Father,
help me to be glad that
I am part of Christ,
part of his dying and rising,
called to share his life in my own,
so that the world may see
and come to believe
that your love is real,
and that all are invited
to the banquet in your
kingdom of life and light.
Amen.

For a prayer for today from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, see page 5 in the Holy Week 2014 issue of Living with Christ.