GREENWICH—A Greenwich parishioner who is ill and under quarantine wrote this beautiful prayer and asked that Fairfield County Catholic print it anonymously. The writer reports deeply missing receiving Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament, and attending Mass, and wrote this prayer after looking out the window.
A Covid-19 Lenten Prayer
I sit empty at the window and wait.
Here I am, your servant sick with want of you.
How long oh Lord?
I should have been filled with your taste, human and divine life within me, on this Sunday of Lent.
How my ears burn to listen to the word from your lips.
But, instead, the blue jays and chickadees feast on their supper in the apple tree outside,
chattering and chirping without care.
The soft grey clouds drift over the mountains, low smoke; like incense stuck on the bows of the evergreens.
They hover like prayers stuttered and searching for the verdant life hidden there
on that sacred ground where you are.
My burning eyes seek your face among the trees, my Beloved.
With a dry mouth I ask the ancient question,
Who may climb your mountain oh LORD?
Who can stand in your holy place?
Are there none left with an ilk of attentiveness as Elijah, or a drop of obedience as Abraham?
Father, I beg you! Cleanse our filthy hands and purify our muddied hearts
so that we may approach You, oh Holy of Holies!
Have mercy, have mercy, Lord have mercy!
Place our damaged and ailing vessels back into the kiln and refine our shattered spirits.
Then, with new wine skins ready, may You bubble up within us, oh deep, unending spring.
Replenish our faith and heal your children Lord God Almighty,
so that we may ascend the heights and together once again proclaim
Christ’s Paschal joy, Alleluia!
