1.
Lord Have Mercy
a prayer for Lent and for always
Terence Alfred Aditon
Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord. Psalm 27:7 (KJV)
Please God, have mercy on me
when I cannot sleep
for remembrance of my sins,
Lonely for those I wronged
or scorned or
left unanswered
or abandoned by my silences
and my absence.
Have mercy, Lord.
Do I dare even ask it?
You asked for mercy, in Gethsemane,
but God did not give it.
Instead, the brutal anguish.
But then, the Resurrection.
If we are born again,
does it mean we start anew?
We are born to new life, they say –
But newness is so varied –
what is new? How is it so?
Our actions? Words? Demeanor?
2.
To be born again, I need to find
The soul depths of repentance. My sins
cannot be bundled up and tossed away.
Maybe some can do that, just forget.
I cannot.
I must remember and re-live
the wrongs that I have done
so their enormity
overwhelms with grief.
Do not read this — put the page away
If now your heavy heart can take no more.
It will come back another day.
The process of repentance draws us back
against our will,
wanting cheer, not sadness –
But like the cartoon spectre,
it waits and knows
surrender to memory will come.
And we take up the path again.
It is the road, finally, to salvation, because
at the end, in asking forgiveness,
in contrition and awe,
We have come to where we must,
to the foot of the Cross,
3.
There to pray, and be
finally
set free.
Poet and writer Terence Alfred Aditon is a frequent contributor to the Magazine.