{"id":18677,"date":"2025-04-12T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T23:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/?p=18677"},"modified":"2025-04-01T10:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T09:39:04","slug":"prayer-for-the-week-april-12th-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/2025\/04\/12\/prayer-for-the-week-april-12th-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer for the Week April 12th 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

 <\/p>\n

Skull Hill Luke 23: 26 \u2013 43, 47-49<\/p>\n

We may not always recognise the fact that the women are always there, during Jesus life, but often in the background, in the kitchen, out of sight , but quietly listening, watching and learning. As Jesus is taken from the court to be crucified, the women walked with him. How typical for their weeping to be referred to as \u201ccarry on.\u201d Not physically carrying the cross, but responding to what was happening in the way that women do. Jesus recognises their presence and addresses them.<\/p>\n

The women travel with Jesus all the way, they stay at the foot of the cross. They stay and face the agony, standing at a distance and keeping vigil. Bearing the pain with Jesus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they led him off, they made Simon, a man from Cyrene who happened to be coming in from the countryside, carry the cross behind Jesus. A huge crowd of people followed, along with women weeping and carrying on<\/em>. At one point Jesus turned to the women and said, \u201cDaughters of Jerusalem, don\u2019t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. The time is coming when they\u2019ll say, \u2018Lucky the women who never conceived! Lucky the wombs that never gave birth! Lucky the breasts that never gave milk!\u2019 Then they\u2019ll start calling to the mountains, \u2018Fall down on us!\u2019 calling to the hills, \u2018Cover us up!\u2019 If people do these things to a live, green tree, can you imagine what they\u2019ll do with deadwood?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Two others, both criminals, were taken along with him for execution.<\/p>\n

When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Jesus prayed, \u201cFather, forgive them; they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them. The people stood there staring at Jesus, and the ringleaders made faces, taunting, \u201cHe saved others. Let\u2019s see him save himself! The Messiah of God\u2014ha! The Chosen\u2014ha!\u201d<\/p>\n

The soldiers also came up and poked fun at him, making a game of it. They toasted him with sour wine: \u201cSo you\u2019re King of the Jews! Save yourself!\u201d Printed over him was a sign:\u00a0this is the king of the jews.<\/p>\n

One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: \u201cSome Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But the other one made him shut up: \u201cHave you no fear of God? You\u2019re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him\u2014he did nothing to deserve this.\u201d Then he said, \u201cJesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.\u201d He said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n

By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours\u2014a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called loudly, \u201cFather, I place my life in your hands!\u201d Then he breathed his last.<\/p>\n

When the captain there saw what happened, he honored God: \u201cThis man was innocent! A good man, and innocent!\u201d<\/p>\n

All who had come around as spectators to watch the show, when they saw what actually happened, were overcome with grief and headed home. Those who knew Jesus well, along with the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a respectful distance and kept vigil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/p>\n

Thank you God for the courage of women, who stand up to the challenges of unjust systems. For the \u201cmothers of the disappeared\u201d in Latin America, for women in black, who stand in silence, weekly in towns and cities, as statement of the need for peace. God, give us the courage to stand up for truth, and to work for justice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Janice Clark – Area Trustee Yorkshire North & East, Yorkshire West and Sheffield<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Skull Hill Luke 23: 26 \u2013 43, 47-49 We may not always recognise the fact that the women are always there, during Jesus life, but often in the background, in the kitchen, out of sight , but quietly listening, watching and learning. As Jesus is taken from the court to be crucified, the women walked with him. How typical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer-worship","category-prayer-for-the-week"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 06:07:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mwib.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}