Stay here and keep watch with me…

We are the Church together no matter where we gather.  Together we keep watch through the night between the Maundy Thursday service and Morning Prayer at 6am on Good Friday.

Are you participating in WatchNight by keeping watch at home?  You are, of course, free to keep watch in whatever way you feel led.  As an aid, a prayer and some passages to consider are listed below.  

A prayer to begin and end your watch:

Lord, you said to your disciples, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.  Stay here and keep watch with me.”  Give us the grace of your Holy Spirit that we, though weak in flesh, might be more than willing to watch with you.  May we stay awake and pray so that we may not come to the time of trial.  In the coming minutes, hours, and days, may we enter more deeply into the mystery of the world’s redemption, and ours.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Passion narratives:

Matthew 26-27

Mark 14-15

Luke 22-23

John 18-19

Penitential Psalms

Psalm 6

Psalm 32

Psalm 38

Psalm 51

Psalm 102

Psalm 130

Psalm 143

Other passages to contemplate:

Isaiah 53

Philippians 2