Prayer of honesty and hope

Mark 16:1–2 

Easter Day confession & intercession 

When the Sabbath was over – 

Oh, God, help us to pause, 

to breathe, to focus on you; 

help us find the courage

to stop, to feel – even 

what hurts, even what hopes. 

Help us to hold the moment 

long enough to be there;

help us to stay with you

and with each other, even

in the garden of grief. 

Mary, Mary, and Salome brought spices – 

Oh, God, this is a story 

of women, written out of 

so much of your story, our 

story. So we pray for 

the ones written out of the story

for so long, and now finding

their voice, claiming their place;

and we pray for the ones 

still hidden between the lines,

obscured in the shadows, held

off to the edges, the margins,

the outside. More, we pray

for ourselves to see

as you see, welcome as you

do, and listen to shaking voices

with your message to speak. 

So that they might anoint him – 

Oh, God, how do we honour you,

having come among us

in Jesus, having stood firm

for the Way of Justice and Love

in the face of the fiercest 

persecution? What can we do

to honour that act of love,

of reconciliation, of invitation

back to your Way of Justice,

of Love? Help us to see, 

help us to act, to live, our 

honour for you.