Third Sunday of Lent
March 23, 2025
Isaiah 55:1-9 | Psalm 63:1-8 | 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 | Luke 13:1-9
Hebrews 12:1
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us….
Third Sunday of Lent Devotion
by Ben Norquist
A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place in search of new insight or transformation, or to pray for the soul of a loved one. This pilgrimage was all of these and more.
A group of us—Christians, Jews, and Muslims—gathered by the hundreds in Chicago to pray for peace in Gaza. We huddled to shield against the icy wind as we walked the lakefront on a frigid day in March, 2024. In the previous weeks, we wrote our prayers specially for the occasion.
We started:
Gaza is a sacred place, close to God’s heart, and we follow him there.
Every pilgrimage starts and ends where we live. Home is an essential aspect of our pilgrimage – the journey should bring Gaza closer to home. No longer “foreign,” Gaza will become part of our community.
This pilgrimage was a protest, but a unique one – a devotional protest, a reverent march, a spiritual cry.
Indeed, Muna (name changed) approached me between prayer stations 3 and 4. Muna leads weekly protests in Chicago—I’d actually seen her in pictures on social media at the head of the crowds. She’d never been a part of anything like this she said, and she was grateful. Yes, a protest, but a devotional protest.
This cry is shared across faith communities, so you will be joining Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others who are moved by faith to prayer and action.
A Jewish cantor led us to sing out our hope that Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; They shall study for war no more, our voices muted, but persistent against the lake noise. A Muslim divinity student invited us to envision our walk as parallel to the “straight path.”
As we look out to the lakefront, let us remember the sea in Gaza that can no longer drown out the sound of the bombs; as we engage in prayer, let us remember the divine mercy that we seek; as we take these steps together, let us remember solidarity is both sentiment and practice. This is the straight path.
A pastor asked simply: “How long, O Lord?!”
We walked a 3.5 mile loop that day, and paused at 5 prayer stations. Each stop corresponded to a location in Gaza, the Eretz Crossing and Jabalya Refugee Camp, Al-Shifa Hospital, central Gaza, St. Porphyrius and the Grant Omari Mosque, and the Rafah border crossing. Leaders invited the pilgrims to actually imagine themselves in these places as we prayed.
Perhaps you too can join us in imagining yourself in these places with us and add your prayers to ours across time and space.
Station #1 – Entering In
We are at the Eretz Crossing from Israel. The crossing is heavily militarized. You can hear bombs exploding and smell the chemicals of war. You feel the gaze of the soldiers as you pass.
As we move into Gaza, we soon come to Jabalya Refugee Camp. The largest camp in the Palestinian Territories, Jabalya has over 100,000 registered residents. The United Nations established the camp in 1948 for the Palestinian refugees coming from areas that are now inside Israel.
Join us in praying for the immediate flow of life saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
Station #2 – Bearing Witness
We have arrived at Dar al-Shifa (“House of Healing”) Hospital in Gaza City. It was the largest medical complex in Gaza, housing a range of modern facilities, equipment, and expertise.
Several chiefs of medical departments died in various bombings around the hospital. Israel raided the hospital. Al-Shifa was trashed and equipment totaled after these raids and it has not been operational since then.
Join us in praying for an enduring ceasefire.
Station #3 – Solidarity
We arrive before an ancient olive tree in central Gaza. The tree is surrounded by scenes of Palestinian mourning, but also of resilience. To the far south, you spot a tent city–a refugee camp for decades, it is now also hosting tens of thousands of newly displaced people from northern and central Gaza. If you listen carefully, you might hear the sounds of a children’s program–resourceful young people by the hundreds are leading ad hoc programs for the younger children in these camps with singing, dancing, and face painting. They hope beyond hope to help the children cope with the hellish world around them and to blunt the trauma.
Join us in praying for an end of occupation and achievement of just peace.
Station #4 – Responding
We now enter the old city in northern Gaza. We look one way and see St. Porphyrius Orthodox Church and another and see the Grand Omari Mosque, both now in rubble. Being here brings to mind other holy places: The Holy Family Catholic Church, Gaza Baptist Church, the many mosques throughout Gaza and the Synagogues beyond the border, at their best, places of devotion, worship, and hope.
Although these buildings have been desecrated by the violence of war, they remain monuments to the centuries of holy devotion offered in them. As we pause to pray here, our spiritual posture should be one of responding to what we have seen, lamenting, praying, and deciding to act.
Join us in praying for release of all hostages, both the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the Palestinian detainees held without due process in Israeli military prisons.
Station #5 – Going with Gaza
We have arrived in Rafah. It is a small city overflowing with the refugees of Gaza. More than half of all Gazans are in the streets of Rafah [since the ceasefire, hundreds of thousands left Rafah]. The infrastructure here cannot support so many. The streets are host to all of life, to the children, the old, the dead; to latrines and aid; to playing and weeping. Take a moment to imagine what you see and hear among these tents.
As we depart Gaza, Rafah is hard to leave. There are so many people here and no one knows what their lives will hold.
What do you pray at this moment of departure?
Imagine returning home now. Home can never be the same. We now see Gaza as part of our home and our home as part of Gaza.
Special thanks to Rev. Tiana Coleman, Adam Gottlieb, Aisha Subhan, John Trott, Sarah Sullivan, Karen and Zach Savella Stallard, and Brent Bailey, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Priscilla Read, Anne Koerber, and Newland Smith for their contributions of prayers, texts, poems, and visual art.
Use our Gaza Liturgy in your own community – https://www.bennorquist.org/welcome
Ben Norquist is a researcher and organizer. In addition to his work with CMEP, he directs the Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East. His first book, Every Somewhere Sacred: Rescuing a Theology of Place in the American Imagination (IVP Academic) is due out in fall 2025. In his local community, Ben helps faith communities engage more thoughtfully with Native Americans and come to terms with histories of injustice. Ben holds his Ph.D. in Higher Education from Azusa Pacific University (Los Angeles) and his M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College (Annapolis). Ben’s dissertation is a qualitative regional case study exploring adaptive Palestinian approaches to pedagogy.
To read the previous devotional click here: https://cmep.org/prayers4peace-second-sunday-of-lent/
A printable PDF of all of this year’s Lent devotionals are available for download and printing HERE