There is grief so big that silence is the only response.
My prayer response:
(Silence. Waiting. Grief.)
Biblical touchstones:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…a time to mourn… Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4
I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath; God has driven and brought me into darkness without any light… Lamentations 3:1-2
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
Matthew 27:57-61
For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they? As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep. Job 14:7-12
Invitation to prayer:
What prayers are emerging from your heart, mind, and body? Pray them now. Let them lead you where you need to go.
Photos: Entombment of Jesus, Twelfth century Passion and Resurrection window, Chartres Cathedral (France)
Pray with Jill Geoffrion 