Our prayers
rise like incense to You
We struggle to light the flame
to rekindle the heat
to see the wick catch fire.

Sometimes,
there is nothing left.
There is nothing to burn.
There is no passion.
There is no joy.
And faith is just a routine,
a posturing,
a vain repetition.

O God,
in our attempts to follow
and love and serve and worship You,
We grow stale.
We grow cold.
We become… indifferent.

We know our need for Your Love
Your boundless compassion
Your Spirit’s Fire,
and wonder why
You seem so far away…

And so in Lent
as we try new disciplines
and new abstentions
and feast on Your Words,
we remember
that Your Presence never leaves us.

We turn to You,
O God.

We know that You are the one
who fires us up
who builds a flame anew in us
who gives us hope
who shows the way
to Light and Flame and Power.

Do Your work in us,
O God.
Do Your work in us.

Amen.