Thank you for joining us for Holy Week Prayer. The guide below indicates in bold type where all of us read together; the normal type is said by a single voice, and the italic type indicate instructions or references, not read aloud. A colon (:) indicates a pause.
​A PDF version of the week's prayers is found here >>

Wednesday

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
As the day rises to meet the sun.

Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

In your great mercy, O God : answer me with your unfailing help.

Psalm 69:8-15
Surely for your sake I have suffered reproach : and shame has covered my face. 
   I have become a stranger to my own kindred : an alien to my mother’s children, a stranger to my own mother's children.
for zeal for your house has eaten me up : 
    the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen on me.
I humbled myself with fasting : but that was turned to my reproach
I put on sackcloth also : and became a byword among them.
Those who sit at the gate murmur against me :
    and the drunkards make songs about me.
But as for me, this is my prayer to you: at the time you have set, O Lord. 
 “In your great mercy, O God : answer me with your unfailing help.”

In your great mercy, O God : answer me with your unfailing help.

Old Testament reading | Isaiah 50:4-9a
4 The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,
    to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
    wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;
    I have not been rebellious,
    I have not turned away.
6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
    from mocking and spitting.
7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
    I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
    and I know I will not be put to shame.
8 He who vindicates me is near.
    Who then will bring charges against me?
    Let us face each other!
Who is my accuser?
    Let him confront me!
9 It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.
    Who will condemn me?

New Testament Gospel reading  | Matthew 26:1-5, 14-25
1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
14 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”
18 He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 And while they were eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
22 They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely you don’t mean me, Lord?”
23 Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”
25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi?”
Jesus answered, “You have said so.”

In your great mercy, O God : answer me with your unfailing help.

Reflecting on her beating in the Winona County Jail, civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer said, “It wouldn’t solve any problem for me to hate whites just because they hate me. Oh, there’s so much hate, only God has kept the Negro sane.”

Prayers for others 
 
Our Father (Lord's Prayer)
 
Merciful Lord, you revealed your glory by humbly serving the one who would betray you. Shower us with your mercy, Lord, and grow us up to be merciful. Amen.
 
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you  :
Wherever he may send you :
May he guide you through the wilderness :
Protect you through the storm :
May he bring you home rejoicing :
At the wonders he has shown you :
May he bring you home rejoicing :
Once again into our doors.

This liturgy is taken from the book, Common Prayer A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro, published by Zondervan, copyright 2010 by The Simple Way and School for Conversion.