Prepare
Scripture: Mark 14:1-9
"During dinner, a
woman came in with a vase made of alabaster and containing very expensive
perfume of pure nard. She broke open the vase and poured the perfume on Jesus
head." (Common English Bible, v. 3)
It was three days after this
young parishioner gave birth to her second child and she lay in a coma,
unresponsive. The pain and suffering in the room was so thick it was hard to
breathe. But on the other side of the hospital, a baby girl was being rocked, fed and loved. The sweetness brought tears to our eyes.
On that Wednesday of Holy
Week, I anointed the mother and daughter with violet scented oil. And we
prayed. We pounded on heaven’s door and begged for God’s blessings and grace in
a way that many of us had never prayed before. And had there been a hundred
alabaster vases, I would have broke everyone of them open and poured out the
perfume on everyone present, for nothing would have been too costly on that day.
Prayer: O Lord, as the woman with the alabaster vase prepared
you for the days ahead, prepare us. Pour out on us your riches – your love and
grace, your forgiveness and mercy, your peace and joy – that by your anointing
we might see all in the light of eternity. Amen.
The Reverend Gloria McCanna
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