Dear God, we ask that you hear our Lenten prayer of praise, surrender, and petition. We praise you for the many gifts that you have given us. We surrender our control, seeking to follow Jesus’s model of humility, while striving to love as he loved us. We recognize that suffering comes with love, that great love and great suffering can transform us, but that neither experience is necessarily easy. We offer our petition to you, praying that we might have the strength of our convictions, the hope of our faith, and the joy of that hope when times are difficult. May we always place our trust in you and commend our whole selves to your care. In doing so, may we always proclaim, in word and deed, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done! Amen.
—from the book The Last Words of Jesus: A Meditation on Love and Suffering,
by Daniel P. Horan, OFM
