LAMENTATIONS OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH
Holy Saturday is often spoken about as a day of ‘emptiness and numbness’. On one level this is true, but since entering the monastery I have discovered another dimension. On a day when you could feel out of sorts and not quite know what to do the for best, the framework of the monastic liturgy boundaries time and space for me. We begin the day with Office of Readings and listen to a text from the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. A cantor sings the descant line and the melody is played on a tenor recorder. It is a hauntingly beautiful combination. Every word is poignant.
‘The favours of the Lord are not all past,
nor his kindnesses exhausted;
every morning they are renewed;
‘My portion is the Lord’ says my soul,
‘and so I will hope in him.’
‘The Lord is good to those who trust him,
to the soul that searches for him.
It is good to wait in silence
for the Lord to save.‘
There’s tremendous comfort in knowing that the Lord’s kindnesses are not exhausted. There’s hope too in the knowledge that each day God’s love and faithfulness for each of us is renewed.
Can you bring to mind people in your own life who most need to hear these words?
Sometimes in the face of great sorrow and hardship all we can do is ‘wait in silence for the Lord to save.’
Can you pray these verses for someone you know to be suffering great hardship? Can you be the one who waits in silence with them?