Loving God, on this day we remember that going up to Jerusalem cost Jesus his very life. So we come before you, conscious of the way religious words and holy phrases can slip so easily from our lazy lips and our hardened hearts. What do we really know of your mountainous truth, your rock-hard integrity, the depth of your suffering for love of us all? Forgive us for the shallowness of our faith and the timidity of our following: forgive us for the ready excuses we make for going our own way and claiming it as yours.
Turn us round again, we pray, by
your Holy Spirit, active within us and among us. Show us how to be open again to your
faithfulness and to your freedom, that we may live new lives and be again
bearers of the seeds of the realm of Jesus.
—Going up to Jerusalem by John Harvey
