Lament

To the tune ERHALT UNS, HERR (“The Glory of These Forty Days“).

Oh, Father, do you hear the cries?
The blood of Abel soaks the ground.
The voices of the stones would rise
if human voices make no sound.

In Ramah, women wail aloud:
Their missing children do not hear.
Beneath the bootheels of the proud
the lowly eat the bread of tears.

And Christ, who came to save his bride,
is hanging, dying on the tree.
The priests pass by on th'other side
and will not turn their heads to see.

Oh, hanging Christ, turn not your face,
God who refused to stand far off.
Oh, drown this world in floods of grace
and raise us on its waves aloft.

And with your love pierce all our hearts:
Lord, open up our hands and side
to take the gifts your grace imparts
and pour them forth to join your tide.
Amen.