You were poor

In this week’s JUST LENT course, we explored poverty and how our Christian Faith compels us to respond to need, and the causes of poverty. This prayer wraps up our conversation as we reflect on the poverty of Christ.

You were poor
when they wrapped you in tight bands of cloth,
and placed you in a feeding trough
for stinking shepherds from the night-time shift to see
what has been signed to them.

You were poor
when you fled to the pyramid land of Egypt
seeking safety in the place that once enslaved your own people,
as we waited for a new Exodus,
a liberation of love.

You were poor
when you moved away from your Nazareth home,
and found nowhere to lay your head,
the foxes’ heads more comfortably laid,
the birds of the air branched and nested,
as you walked the border lands of difference and danger.

You were poor
when, stripped of your clothing,
they hung you high
between two thieves,
your strange companions in death,
as you promised paradise
even though all seemed lost.

You were poor
when from a borrowed tomb
you rose from death
to pour peace upon your friends,
breathing out a new life,
and a new way