Mary Sullivan

Do not abandon yourself to despair.  We are an Easter people, and hallelujah is our song.

Pope John Paul II

Christ is alive!  This truth we believe

His love we can now freely receive.

He has come with the promise of new life for each one.

Hallelujah’s the song which we sing and have sung.

Dear Father, we beg You for more of Your grace,

That in strength we persist, in running this race.

In Your mercy, grant loved ones, wisdom anew.

Give to them new life, found only in You.

Give to them strength; and give to them hope.

Give to them patience, and graces to cope.

A new joy and peace, grant each son and daughter.

Give to all fresh springs of living water.

Help us to flee, from all doubt, all despair.

Merciful Father, please hear and answer our Easter prayer.

Dear Lord, may we seek You
in the places You are found.
In the Scriptures may we seek You,
where Your Word and truth abound.

May we seek You in those places
Where You are in our midst.
In the source and summit of our lives,
The Most Holy Eucharist.

We cry out to You for mercy, Lord.
Knowing You are near.
You care for us and love us.
Of You we need not fear.

Your ways are not our ways, Lord.
Your thoughts are not our thoughts.
May we and all our loved ones know
Our wills have led to naught.

Heaven so high above the earth,
Your ways above ours too.
May we seek Your holy will,
In all we think and say and do.

Nailed upon the cross, badly beaten and blood-soaked.
He had no words of anger. Words of love alone He spoke.
Of those who had betrayed Him, jeered at, and mocked Him too—
Father, He said forgive them.  For they know not what they do.

With steadfast love for others, thieves on His right and left,
Hanging there beside Him, in pain and in distress.
Willing only good for souls, that repentant souls be freed,
He assured the good thief: This day in paradise, you will be with Me.

Relentless was the torture, when His eyes looked down and saw,
John, and His loving mother, the mother He adored.
He spoke to John: Behold your Mother.  To Mary: Behold Your Son.
His mother now our mother, that well this race we might run.

Questioning the Father, as He hung before the crowd:
…why hast Thou abandoned me? This, He cried out loud.
Jesus knew His crucifixion, was for Him a choice,
He wanted us to know, when abandoned—when we have no voice,

That He understands.  Abandonment He faced.
That we might in our own agony, cling to our cross in haste.
Jesus, with love for others, still serving others first,
While on that cross, He let us know that for souls: I thirst.

Jesus gave us truth, did only the Father’s will.
With knowledge that His work was done, His purpose fulfilled,
It is finished He said, as on the cross He hung.
His death deemed the path by which heaven would be won.

Surrendered to the Father, at His ending agony:
My Spirit I command, into the hands of Thee.
With that He breathed His last, His last and final breath.
And still today He thinks of us with love and tenderness.

Let us imitate our Savior, seek to serve others first.
When on the cross of life we hang, for souls may we thirst.
When we are abandoned, to our crosses may we cling.
Let us imitate our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and King.

From our misery in life, from our agony and fears,
From lament and sorrow, from this valley of tears,
There comes a resurrection, and a wellspring of hope,
Lifting the burden of the cross; making easy the yoke.

By our crosses we are strengthened.  Though by them, we are tried.
As furnace-tested iron, as gold tested by fire.
Our cross united to His cross; and lifted high anew.
A new day now dawns upon us.  Resurrected, we are too.

At Christ’s brutal crucifixion, as He breathed His final breath,
Love and truth were crucified.  Both, we put to death.
Christ’s triumph over death, leads us to hope and pray,
We too will triumph over death to a new life one day.

On hurting hearts there still descends, as if a gentle dove,
The last words which Jesus spoke to us—His words of Divine love.

Into your hands I commend my spirit, is what Christ Himself had cried,
The last words that He spoke, right before He died.
As we hang upon our cross in life, when too great seem the demands,
May we cry out to You Father, I commend my spirit into Your hands.

When what happens in this world, we can no longer understand.
When we are feeling sad, and life seems less than grand,
When shattered dreams lay all around us, we feel like sojourners, in a foreign land,
With Christ we can cry out, I commend my spirit into Your hands.

When life is going haywire, not at all as we had planned.
When the enemy encircles us, and we feel quite outmanned.
When we doubt our strength to persevere, have not the legs to stand,
May we call to You, dear Father, I commend my spirit into Your hands.

As we call out to You, Father, as You hear our embattled cry,
May we give all we have to You, may we to ourselves then die.
In dying to ourselves, we enjoin our crucifixion,
May this death to self, lead us to a glory resurrection.

May the tears which we now shed; each dark night lived as black as pitch.
Be the hoe which tills the watered soil, the nutrient which makes it rich.
And one day yet to come at one of our tomorrows,
May flowers bloom from today’s grief. May life spring forth from sorrow.

This brutal winter, all is barren. But flowers bloom whence comes the spring.
May our springtime of flowers, one day conversions bring.
May loved ones feeling crucified, call upon the Father, too,
I commend my spirit into Your hands, I give everything to You.

From all this suffering and sorrow, dear Father, in Your mercy bring,
Fields full of conversions, in us all, whence comes the spring.

“O soul, whoever you may be in this world even if your sins were black as night.
Do not fear God, weak child that you are for great is the power of God’s mercy.” [Diary of Saint Faustina (1652)]

Sometimes our sin can feel black as the dark of night.
As if sin dwelt beyond God’s love, lived in condemning sight.
As if we lived with no hope, no chance of reconciliation.
As if we’d thrown away our lives, were destined for damnation.

Father, sometimes we feel our sins You can’t forgive,
We ponder them over again. Our failings, we relive.
Dwelling on our errors, can keep us from Your light.
We tell ourselves there’s just no way, at last to set things right.

This beating ourselves up is living Satan’s sneaky lie.
Christ came to suffer for us.  For us, He came to die.
He came to free us from our sins, that from sin we might fly.
This unforgiveness feeling is forgiveness gone awry.

May we recognize Christ’s suffering, lest He died in vain.
Know His scourging and His agony, and all of His pain.
By suffering we’ve been redeemed, and salvation gained.
It is only through Christ’s suffering; eternal life has been obtained.

May we trust You, Lord, as a child trusts his loving Father, and draws near.
May we reach for You, with open arms, abandon thoughts of fear.
Lord, help our loved ones know, help them now to see,
Their sins can be washed away.  From sin, they can be free.

There is no sin or pain Lord and no darkness of the night,
That is beyond Your healing hand, when brought into Your light.
Those made weak and frail by sin, may approach You without fear.
In Your mercy is great power, Your heart of mercy—always near.

Go to our loved ones now, Lord.  Help them at last to know,
That sins, though they be scarlet, can be made as white as snow.