today's Hosanna

Gracious Father, be near all those who live in fear

of being taken to task for making even the smallest mistake.

They feel harassed and helpless, trapped.

Rescue the powerless, crying out

from under the thumb of a merciless bully.

Take the side of the poor, for the rich already have options—

they can come and go as they please,

but the poor have no one to defend them

and they suffer insidious, perpetual abuse.

Father, there are too many people today who have no choice

but to work at jobs that are insignificant to them.

They feel as though they have been reduced to nothing

because they find no satisfaction in their labor,

no room to be creative and no dignity

in how they spend their working hours.

They work out of compulsion for rewards they will never see

because the fruit of their industry

goes to someone else—they feel like slaves.

Have mercy on them!

They find no rest and they are hanging on

by a thin string, partially frayed, ready to break.

Catch them if they fall. Hold them in your arms.

See them and remind them

of their inestimable worth.

Today we raise our voices as much as we are able.

Hear the Hosanna of those who have been crying out

so loud for so long that they only have strength

to utter in cracked whispers, tired and hoarse,

baptized in a flood of tears:

“Save us, save us, save us!”

“Save us, save us, save us!”

“Save us, save us, save us!”

Amen.  

………………….

Today’s “Hosanna”

a prayer by Troy Cady

on Palm Sunday 2019

.