{"id":14315,"date":"2026-03-29T21:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14315"},"modified":"2026-03-29T21:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:54:11","slug":"laments-for-lent-palm-sunday-a-lament-for-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=14315","title":{"rendered":"Laments for Lent – Palm Sunday – A Lament for my Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cherry<\/a><\/p>\n

This week in the email newsletter from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, they listed this testimony:<\/p>\n

I was once invited by a visiting professor at Boston College to write my own psalm of lament. It was an amazing experience as I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life. I often suggest trying it to others who are struggling. The basic structure is to cry out to God, complain, ask for help, express trust, and end with praise and thanksgiving. It can bring great peace.
\n\u2014Eileen M.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes! This is my whole reason for writing this Laments for Lent blog series<\/a> and my Praying with the Psalmists<\/em> book and website, prayingwiththepsalmists.com<\/a>. Praying your own lament, writing your own psalms – those things do your heart so much good! I use the same basic structure she gives, but put it into an acrostic to make it easy to remember:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Address to God<\/li>\n
  2. Complaint<\/li>\n
  3. Confession of Trust<\/li>\n
  4. Entreaty<\/li>\n
  5. Sureness of Help<\/li>\n
  6. Subsequent Praise<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Each week of Lent, we’ve looked at one of the parts of the Lament.<\/p>\n

    Today is Palm Sunday, the day we celebrate the start of Holy Week – the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowds shouted “Hosanna!” It’s the perfect time to discuss the sixth part of a Lament – Subsequent Praise. Because in so many ways the joy and the cries of “Hosanna!” are looking forward to the day when Christ will indeed be the Ruler of All and make all things right.<\/p>\n

    This part, I admit, I struggled to make fit the acronym. My Psalms professor’s name for it was “Vow to Praise.” The lovely thing about it is that at the end of most Laments in Psalms, the psalmist takes a moment to talk about how they’re going to praise the Lord after God comes through.<\/p>\n

    Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

    Psalm 54:6\u2014<\/p>\n

    I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
    \n I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u00a0
    \nPsalm 61:8\u2014<\/p>\n

    Then I will ever sing in praise of your name
    \n and fulfill my vows day after day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u00a0
    \nPsalm 13:6\u2014<\/p>\n

    I will sing the Lord\u2019s praise,
    \n for he has been good to me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Psalm 79:13\u2014<\/p>\n

    Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
    \n will praise you forever;
    \nfrom generation to generation
    \n we will proclaim your praise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I love this part of writing a lament, because it nudges me to turn toward hope. Taking a moment to visualize how much joy I’ll have when God answers my prayer puts a shot of joy into a tough situation.<\/p>\n

    Each week I’m also writing an example lament to show you how easy it is to use the form to pray your own lament. This week, I’ll be praying for my best friend Kathe who lost her husband Joe to a heart attack this week.<\/p>\n

    A Lament for my Friend<\/p>\n

    Father, I come before you for Kathe and her kids,
    \nholding my friend in your light.<\/p>\n

    She and Joe married so young –
    \nshe was 18, he was 20 –
    \nthey’ve shared their whole lives together.<\/p>\n

    Theirs wasn’t a perfect marriage;
    \nthey had their bumpy spots and their annoyances with each other –
    \nbut it was a committed marriage –
    \nthey stuck it out –
    \nand were there for each other for 44 years.<\/p>\n

    Looking at the pictures of Joe
    \nas they grew and changed over the years –
    \nI realize how much I’m going to miss him, too.
    \nHe saw the funny side of everything,
    \nthat came from keen insight.
    \nHe pointed out things to think about,
    \nalways with humor.<\/p>\n

    And he was kind.
    \nHe cared about people.
    \nA steady presence in my friend’s life
    \nwho always made me smile.<\/p>\n

    Even moments before his last heart attack,
    \nhe phoned Kathe that he’d be fine,
    \nthat the store personnel called 911 just as a precaution,
    \nand she shouldn’t worry about him.<\/p>\n

    But for Kathe and their young adult kids
    \nthere’s going to be a tremendous gap in their lives.<\/p>\n

    But Father, you spared Joe’s life many times;
    \nHis first heart attack happened decades before.
    \nWe’re so thankful for the many years they had together
    \nhelping and nurturing their kids to adulthood.<\/p>\n

    And we are sure Joe is now in heaven with you,
    \nmaking the angels laugh.
    \nOn earth we’ll miss him,
    \nbut thank you for the way he brightened the world
    \nwhile he was here.<\/p>\n

    Now I ask you to hold Kathe and their kids
    \nclose to your heart.
    \nGently lead them like a shepherd.
    \nComfort and sustain them
    \nthrough the valley of the shadow of death.
    \nMay they know
    \nyou are with them.<\/p>\n

    And Glory of the Heavens,
    \nthere will be a time of unimaginable joy
    \nwhen Kathe and Joe are reunited
    \nand the best parts of their souls,
    \nthe parts that reflect you most,
    \nare what will remain and endure
    \nfor an eternity of joy.<\/p>\n

    ***<\/p>\n

    As every other week, let me urge you to try writing a lament, too. <\/p>\n

    [Who will be the first in this series to paste their own example into the comments to let me know somebody’s trying it out? You won’t be the very first reader psalm in the comments<\/a>, but the first in this series. Try it!]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This week in the email newsletter from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation, they listed this testimony: I was once invited by a visiting professor at Boston College to write my own psalm of lament. It was an amazing experience as I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,62,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laments","category-laments-for-lent","category-praying-with-the-psalmists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14318,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14315\/revisions\/14318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}