Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Kyrie Eleison


This is a poem written some time ago, as an expression of congregational repentance for a church that was in the midst of a dry time spiritually.

Kyrie Eleison 

Restore us, O God.
Make your face to shine upon us,
That we may be healed.

Hear our confession;
      Give ear to our cry,
            That we might seek you and find you
When we search for you with all our hearts.

Forgive our pride, O Lord—
We have sought to make for ourselves
Garments of righteousness and truth,
But these both belong to you,
And in our pride you have made us blind
That we are naked before the world.

Forgive our bitterness, O Lord—
We have judged each other so harshly,
Yet still we wear the masks of fellowship;
We have forgotten to forgive,
      Forgotten to love beyond the pain,
And so here we have remained,
      Empty and unforgiven.

Forgive our hollow pretensions, O Lord—
We sing your name with unimpassioned lips;
We enter your temple and believe it our own;
We gather at your throne to sing with our tongues
      And not with our hearts,
Never expecting to meet you there.

Grant us grace, Lord, as we turn;
      Give us an undivided heart,
That our one passion,
      Our one great thought,
            Would be to seek and to love
            You for whom we thirst.

Restore us, O God.
Make your face to shine upon us,
That we may be healed.