Written by Catherine Smith, Sackville NB. 
Catherine shares her writing and her passion for rural ministries at Hem of the Light. 

Holy One
All through Lent
You have fed us with questions.
What is your deepest desire?
What do you want me to do for you?
Who do you say that I am?
Whose image do you bear?

Questions ~
The purple road is littered with them
We have dropped them and picked them up
and dropped them again.

Or we have left the road altogether,
forgetting that we are
to follow You
watch with you,
stay awake with you.
This is the road of shadows
purple as sleepless eyes.

Cross-shadowed and fear-swept,
it is our road because it is yours.

This is the Lenten Road
and somewhere in its turnings
we will find our shape
traced by You
Your path our inscription
Your image on our lives
“The One we would never have imagined”
The Way we would never have chosen.

In You who are the covenant
binding us to life
we pray for others who share this road
and these questions

We hold in prayer
The first people of this land
who live with a particular respect for and relationship to it
those who are homeless, 60 million displace around the world at this moment
the families who somewhere, somehow are on their way to us

We hold the conversation around end of life
medically assisted dying and palliative care,
the hope for wisdom in those who decide

We hold those who live with questions or torment or celebration around gender identity.

We hold those who grieve
and those who are afraid to grieve
those who are house bound
those who are hiding their struggle.

For one another here we pray in silence
  (silence)
This is the Lenten road
littered with questions
We walk it together, in Jesus’ name.   (CES)