Lenten Prayers: Simon of Cyrene

When the smooth glass of our plans
is shattered by the flung rock
of harsh, unimagined demands,
remind us, Jesus, of your last helper,
Simon the Cyrenian.

He might have been on his way
to the temple, rehearsing his litany
of sins, face gray with tired shame,
sacrifice fluttering in his hands—
a gesture never quite enough.  

Did you have him in your mind
at the beginning, before everything,
before time? Did your love find
him the way water finds a way
through stone, washing through him

though the cross still blistered
his skin and bowed his bones? Help us
embrace your interruption, Jesus, even
though our once-lovely plans now are shards,
painful it may be, it is where you are.