8 Family Prayers for EasterSample

Monday: A Passion for Justice

Lord,

On the Monday before You died, we saw Your passion for justice. You experienced holy anger against those in the temple cheating the poor and selling overpriced animals for them to be able to worship God.

Your anger was so different from the Pharisees’ anger that day, who didn’t want to give up their power to You. Both of you had something precious you were defending. But only One was defending God’s heart.

Please change us on the inside. Make any anger in us holy.

In our prayers for Holy Week, we also pray alongside this Franciscan prayer:

May God bless us with discomfort

At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships

So that we may live from deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger

At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God’s creations

So that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears

To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,

So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and

To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with just enough foolishness

To believe that we can make a difference in the world,

So that we can do what others claim cannot be done:

To bring justice and kindness to all our children and all our neighbors who are poor. Amen.

(Original prayer by Sister Ruth Marlene Fox)