Lent Daybook, 34: The Cry That Will Be Heard
SIXTH SATURDAY IN LENT
Welcome to a Lent daybook for these 40 days of prayer. You can see all the previous Lent daybook 2019 posts here.
Is this your first time to practice Lent? Here's a simple introduction.
Look: The Cry That Will Be Heard, 1969, Sister Corita Kent
Text: LIFE THE NEGRO AND THE CITIES The Cry That Will Be Heard March 8, 1968 35 WHY NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR FELLOW MAN GIVE A DAMN Put your girl to sleep some time with rats instead of nursery rhymes with hunger and your other children by her side And wonder if you'll share your bed with something else that must be fed for fear may lie beside you or it may sleep down the hall and it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man and it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man. Come and see how well despair is seasoned by the stiffling air see a ghetto in the good old sizzling summertime suppose as the streets were all on fire the flames like tempers leaping higher suppose you lived there all you life do you think that you would mind and it might begin to reach you why we give a damn about our fellow man and it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man and it might begin to reach you why we give a damn. If you'd take the train with me uptown through the misery of ghetto streets in morning light there's always night. Take a window seat put down your times you can read between the lines just meet the faces that you meet beyond the window's pane and it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man and it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man and it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man. FOR (W.E.L.) (As recorded by Spanky & Our Gang/ Mercury) SCHARF
Look: Community, 1982, Sister Corita Kent
Text: ...We are either going to become a community or we are going to die
Barbara Ward
Listen: “Crucifixus a 8 voci” from Allegri: Miserere, Cantillation, Antony Walker, Brett Weymark
Spotify | YouTube | Latin text & English translation
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“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
*
”I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, who gives victory to kings, who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword. Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace; may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce; may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields; may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing; may there be no cry of distress in our streets! Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!”
*
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
*
”For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Sunday Scripture readings are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year C). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the Book of Common Prayer (Year 1) with the Psalm for the Morning Office.
Pray & Do:
Each week during Lent, we will devote Saturdays to connecting with An American Lent from The Repentance Project. It's God's kindness that leads us to repentance, and in His kindness and provision for reconciliation, He invites us to make confession and ask for forgiveness on behalf of not only ourselves but our forefathers and mothers. We carry a heavy load of guilt and grief in our nation as a result of centuries of grievous sin and unrelenting injustice against African Americans.
Go here to download a PDF or subscribe to receive daily reflections from An American Lent.
Read, reflect and repent with An American Lent.
Begin with prayer:
“Lord, you are the only one who is holy. You are the set apart one. Thank you for shining the light of your presence on me today. I yield to the work of your Spirit in me today. Thank you for your promise to transform me, conforming me to the image and likeness of your Son. Amen.”
If you haven’t yet, spend time today reading through the reflections for Week 6 (April 8-14). I especially noticed Tuesday’s reflection “Wealth from Slavery Builds American Universities” by Demetrius Summerville and Friday’s reflection “Nutrition and the Food We Eat” by Max Finberg.
From Demetrius Summerville’s reflection:
Read carefully by clicking through all the links. Spend time perusing the links to the correlation of slavery to the founding of the universities mentioned in the post.
Take a deep dive into the provided links, detailing Georgetown University’s link to slavery, a study commissioned under the leadership of its president, John DeGoia. Watch a video clip from DeGoia’s speech on the findings. For a deeper understanding as to the importance of this acknowledgment and subsequent actions, watch the presidents of Harvard and Georgetown address this topic.
Take time to answer the questions given in the Response section, particularly the question “How does this account of Georgetown’s response coincide with the response of Zacchaeus
From Max Finberg’s reflection:
Read carefully by clicking through all of the links. Don’t miss the link outlining disparities related to access to food and nutrition.
Pay special attention to the links outlining the reality of urban food deserts . This phenomenon is known as “food apartheid” or “environmental racism.” (See how Denver, Colorado is tackling this issue.)
Close with prayer:
“Lord, open my eyes to see what I cannot see. Pour the oil of your anointing on my will, and give me renewed sight and the ability to perceive with godliness. Open my heart to see the ways in which fear, pride, and privilege have reinforced a false sense of superiority, and kept me from seeing another’s pain. Open my heart to acknowledge the generational consequences of slavery, and give me a spirit that is willing to repent and repair this wound—for the healing of your body. Amen.”
Additional recommendations for your weekend:
Brones, Anna. 2018. “Food Apartheid: The Root of the Problem with America’s Groceries.” The Guardian, May 15, 2018.
New York Law School Racial Justice Project. “Unshared Bounty: How Structural Racism Contributes to the Creation and Persistence of Food Deserts.” American Civil Liberties Union, June 2012.
(See all Lent daybook posts from 2018 here.)