April 2025

The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It can be personalised or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it may be used by individuals too. It is not intended to be definitive.  In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.

Saying for the month: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Mark 15.34 (JB). In your time of contemplation, you may like to shorten this to ‘My God, my God’.

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you offer this time of prayer to God.

Say this introductory invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:  ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matthew 11.28).

Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the mind:

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’.

We come to this saying in the context of Lent, Holy Week and Easter.  At the outset let us remember the last words of Psalm 22: ‘he has done it’.  We rest in the mystery of God’s sovereignty in history.

At the end of three hours of darkness on that Good Friday there is a shout, a shriek. For a moment let us pause and remember the profound depth of Jesus’s suffering on the cross.  This is the ultimate moment when his mission is fulfilled.

It will be helpful to combine the reading of the whole of Psalm 22 (all 31 verses) with the position of St. Mark’s Gospel on the death of Jesus at Mark 15.33-39.

Reading both reminds us that long before the Roman occupation introduced crucifixion, we read words of King David prefiguring the mocking of Jesus. They depict the gentiles surrounding David, his bones being out of joint, his strength being dried up.  They delineate the thirst that accompanies this kind of death, the pierced hands and the division of the garments.

Mark needed to get this written up.  Time was passing, the offer of the ‘Good News’ was being taken far and wide.  Perhaps a focus was the suffering of a part of the infant church.  Mark, the shortest of the Gospels, outlines the person of Jesus through the building of relationships, offering his new teaching and giving practical examples of that teaching.  Then Mark presents the ‘ending’, the anointing, betrayals, trial.  There was no miracle of relief here, for Mark.  The cross was to be the ultimate revelation of perfect love.

There is in this April’s Saying, a fundamental capitulation to this event of ‘darkness’, to a sense of powerlessness.  The abandonment, condemnation, the potential for human rejection of God’s purposes; these can overwhelm.  The words uttered by Jesus are so stark, so harsh, that they even demonstrate a sense, in that specific moment, of a feeling of separation from God.

The mystery is that in this single moment, Jesus is both God and yet he is importantly also a man of sorrows in a world which includes suffering.  As the Prayer Book puts it, ‘he was the propitiation for our sins’.

Jesus’ words were clearly fresh in his mind from his deep knowledge of Psalm 22.  The psalmist continues to move from total despair to profound hope.  Jesus makes this powerful movement too.  There is a deliverance, a kingship is declared, God is to be praised and served.  As Psalm 22 says, so Jesus himself shouts: ‘He has done it!’.

We take this Saying into our minds then in all its rich and vivid lineage, allowing the saying to speak to us: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’.

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

The first silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’.

During this month we are reminded of the forty days during which Jesus was tempted at the outset of his ministry. These temptations are ever present in our own lives. They operate in the context of our free will to respond or not to an ever-loving God. The Gospels and our own experiences of temptation then, remind us of the vagaries of our human nature; we know the best and the worst of it.

Jesus’ cry from the cross reminds us of our wider human feelings and moments of abandonment – by family, friends, the Church, even by God.  The world of our experience is submerged by loneliness.  As our societal experience has moved ever closer to the extremes of individualism we may perhaps feel we move further and further away from the purposes of God.

We face the ‘darknesses’ of disease, breakdown of relationships between individuals, communities and nations. We see the rise of populism, nationalism and the climate emergency.  These can leave us feeling overwhelmed.

But as we write in our hearts this Saying for April, we remember we are not on our own even if at times we feel that we are.  We are reminded that in the darkness of those hours on the cross and in the previous experiences of David referenced in Psalm 22, the progressive sense of isolation can be replaced, doubt can turn to hope.  In that moment of the cry from the cross we had and continue to have a saviour who identified and identifies with us.

Struggles there are and struggles there will be.  Jesus on our behalf did the heavy loading, provided the essential bridge between us and God.  The gift of forgiveness and grace is available. Yes there will still be in us the potential for denial, like Peter’s but there is also the possibility of heroic response to human need.

Psalm 22 progresses from that first verse to the offer of our response of gratitude, a life that can be lived to please God and glorify God.

The cross was not a dead end, it was a fulfilment as prefigured by David.  The ‘cry’ was not a sign of defeat, however that moment might have felt for Jesus or feels for us in our own suffering.  It brings certainty, offers an understanding of the mystery and underlines the miracle of the love available from God.

Now then, we take this word into our hearts, as we allow it to speak in us, letting it touch us and letting it work more deeply upon our lives.

A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

The second silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.

Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world.

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’.

We turn then now to our intercessions, offering prayers for others and for God’s world … As we allow the word to speak through us we remind ourselves that Jesus is the revelation of God, both human and divine. ‘He is the reflection of God’s glory’. Remember his teaching, like the Beatitudes, and his healings, like that of Peter’s mother-in-law.  He calls us as a God who was one of us.  We might direct Jesus’ word towards those people and situations where there is suffering, despair, fear and where abiding in Christ is a reminder of God’s compassion, mercy and forgiveness. 

Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison and your family … “My God, my God” ...’

Conclude this time of intercession with words of thanksgiving: Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out through us to those for whom we pray.

The Conclusion

Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer:

Ever loving God, we thank you for all your unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are, all that we have and all that we do. Amen

You may wish to say the Grace together before departing.