Thursday, February 15, 2018
new moon
partial solar eclipse, southern hemisphere
Reading: Genesis 9:8-17
"I will remember my
covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all
flesh…" (Genesis 9:13)
In Benjamin
Britten's settting of the Chester mystery play Noye's Fludde, the animals enter the ark singing "Kyrie
eleison" - Lord, have mercy - and, after forty days of floating above the
flooded earth, they joyfully walk out onto the dry earth singing,
"Alleluia!" Now, for forty days (minus Sundays), we will undertake a
journey singing "Kyrie eleison" in the Great Litany, while moving
toward that day of springtime newness, when we can again sing "God be
praised!" - Alleluia!
Balthasar Fischer
writes: "…even so brief a prayer as
Kyrie eleison follows the general rule that praise and thanksgiving come first
and that petition flows from these. Because you are our Lord, who has passed
victoriously through death to life, therefore we pray you: have mercy on us and
on the whole world. The petition means more than "Help us!' It means: 'Take all of us with you on your
journey through death to life.'"
Take all of us with you, O
Christ, on your journey through death to life. Amen
- · make an altar, a place for prayer.
