Lament Stories

_Once, ritual lament would have been chanted; women would have been paid to beat their breasts and howl for you all night, when all is silent.Where can we find such customs now_ So many have long since disappeared or.png

Each day of Holy Week, I publish one story of lament from a friend as a way to help us walk with Christ toward the cross.

The guest writers tell stories of walking with Jesus on the path of suffering and include every sort of mourning - illness, relational disillusionment, anxiety, joblessness, death of loved ones, death of dearly-held dreams. Their stories have helped form me in my understanding of suffering and I believe they could also encourage you too.

A few years ago during Lent, as I researched mourning practices around the world for a writing project, I stumbled on the words of Ranier Maria Rilke in his Requiem for a Friend. This phrase "retrieve lament" added to my understanding that part of Christ's ministry to us through His life, His Spirit, and His people is to "retrieve the lament that we omitted".

Jesus gave us a litany of last words as a Sufferer; we refer to them as the Seven Last Words of Christ. The deathbed words of the Suffering Servant provide a framework for the stories of lament we share here this Holy Week.