Prayer for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

O God of our weary hands, which rest today from their labors: may your Spirit fill us with strength to take others’ hands in our own, that, feeling the tactile witness of their work, we might at last understand one another in love, through the grace of Him whose hands were pierced for us, Christ our Lord. Amen.

For music, “Rest These Hands,” by British-born composer Anna Clyne (b. 1980):

As part of this piece, Clyne reads the following poem by her mother:

I rest these hands
World weary
Misunderstood

I rest these hands
Toiled weary
Long before they should

These hands
Palmed to palmed
With wonder

Surrendered