In the pre-Christmas season, is it unusual to find our mind turning to lament? Perhaps not in this pandemic season--and perhaps every holiday season brings with it an undercurrent of sorrow.
My seminary class, Spiritual Formation for Ministry, ended with a module on mourning as a spiritual practice. Most of us hadn't thought of mourning as a spiritual practice before, but it led to interesting conversations. We did the module in early December, which is an interesting time to talk about mourning and grief. Those of us who have been alive for any amount of time are aware that holidays bring pain along with the joy.
Our professor reminded us that even when we feel like we don't have words, we can probably find the words we need in the Psalms. Most of us are more familiar with the happier Psalms, but the Psalms go through every emotion. In times of grief and mourning, she recommended that we turn to these Psalms of lament: 44, 74, 79, 89, 102, 106, and 137.
In these days just before our second Christmas in a time of pandemic, I thought I'd list them here, for those of us feeling sorrow and grief and needing words to pray our lamentations.
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