Friday, April 18th, "What Wondrous Love is This?"

What wondrous love is this,
O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this,
O my soul!
What wondrous love is this
that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse
for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse
for my soul.
~ North American folk hymn



Breath Prayer: “wondrous”    “love”

     Some songs resonate in our bones. Some feel as though they have been sung for generations and yet sung for the first time for us. Sometimes it’s the words, sometimes the melody, sometimes both. This song feels like one of those songs.

     We have heard the story of that long day Jesus endured: from his cell, through the trial, his pronouncement, carrying his cross through the city streets, climbing that hill, being nailed to cross and crucified. Step by step, we have heard of his last day.

     I wonder what it was like to stand by and witness it taking place. I wonder what those who had journeyed with him so far, I wonder what they were feeling and thinking. I wonder if they could watch; could pray; could sing?

     Visiting again this day this song What Wondrous Love watches, prays, sings for me. These words aren’t saying that a sacrifice was made to purchase my soul or salvation. These words say that in my deepest, loneliest, most broken place, the Son of God loved so greatly that he endured immeasurable agony, so that I might live, so that we might live. And this was done so that we all might know that this love is the greatest act possible, human and divine.

Prayer: Holy One, we give you thanks. For your life, for ours we give you thanks. We are drawn into the Passion of this day, enduring again your suffering. May there be grace enough for us hold on to the love that is greater than even death. In you, we pray. Amen. 

 

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