Unspoken Alleluias

Unspoken Alleluias

This phrase from the Benedictine breviary that I sometimes use for morning and evening prayer has pricked at me like a tiny burr in the heart: “From Ash Wednesday until the Easter Vigil, Alleluia is not said at any point in the entire Office.” In my little prayer book normally brimming with praise, the alleluias have gone missing for the forty days of Lent. None at any point from Ash Wednesday until Easter.

So when my small group leader asked us what we were observing (either giving up or giving attention to) during Lent, for a fleeting moment I thought of saying, “I’m fasting from alleluias.” But the truth is, I cannot. No matter what the prayer book might omit, praise springs up from my heart unbidden and unchecked. Whether or not my mouth forms the words, they are ever present, even in this season of somber introspection and repentance:

Alleluia for the smell of rain and the wildflowers that carpet the banks of the bayou! Alleluia for hot coffee and a good book in the still-dark hours of the day! Alleluia for the prayers of friends, and the Spirit who shapes and forms them! Alleluia for spring tomatoes and cucumbers and their fresh, earthy sweetness! Alleluia for the gift of walking and for the places my feet might take me! Alleluia for music and poetry that pierces the heart, for singers who sing and writers who write! Alleluia for words to praise him with, and the breath to form them this day!

No alleluias? No. Most definitely not. I’d more easily give up sleeping, or eating, or breathing air in and out. Without thanksgiving—and without knowing who to thank for every ounce of goodness I can see—my heart would shrivel and my soul would shrink. Some seasons are meant for solemnity. I get that. But I know too much, have seen too much, have been given too much in the last hour alone to leave out praise. It simply wouldn’t do, no matter what the book might say.

When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

Luke 19:37