NOTE: The Monday Prayer will publish every day during Holy Week.

If the cross was the end of the story, we would have no hope. But the cross isn’t the end. Jesus didn’t escape from death; he conquered it and opened the way to heaven for all who will dare to believe. The truth of this moment, if we let it sweep over us, is stunning. It means Jesus really is who he claimed to be, we are really as lost as he said we are, and he really is the only way for us to intimately and spiritually connect with God again. –Stephen James, in Story

PRAYER: (from the Lectionary)

“Almighty God, Whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord, AMEN.”

SCRIPTURES: (from the Lectionary)

This is what God the Lord says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42: 5-7)

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
Your justice like the great deep. (Psalm 36:5-6)

[Your Love O Lord, by Third Day]

PRAYER FOCUS: Walking the Way of the Cross.

Today is Monday of HOLY WEEK. Let us turn our thoughts towards God’s heart and not our own. This week we bend our will to His. This week we listen before we speak. We spend prayer time each day beginning with the liturgical prayer from the Lectionary.

After a time of silence before the LORD our God, let us each seek His Spirit and then pray as we are led. Whatever He shows you, whatever He gives you—pray that. If you discern no clear leading, simply say “Amen.” Either way, we let our words be few (Ecclesiastes 5:2).

May we find the Way of the Cross none other than the way of life and peace.