Practicing Lament with Children in Church

by Valerie M. Grissom

Like us, children regularly experience loss, trauma, transition, disappointment, grief, and even bullying, violence, racial injustice, poverty, and discrimination. Lament is a spiritual practice of worship that enables children to address grief and loss with their faith communities, expressing their deepest emotions in authentic, relational faith to God in worship and in daily life.

In prayer, we can approach God honestly with our pain and confusion. God invites us to practice daily rhythms and rituals, through prayer, that allow us to lament with one another, no matter what age, in community.

Not sure where to begin? Scripture offers a variety of embodied, multisensory, multimodal practices of lament in prayer. Almost half of the Psalms are prayerful laments to God! Below are ideas to try.

Communal Lament with Responsorial

Lead a time of communal lament, offering bidding prayers where people can pray aloud or in their hearts regarding the following:

ONE: God we lift up those who are suffering, naming them aloud or in our hearts,
ALL: Hear our cry, O Lord!
ONE: God we lift up the injustices that pervade our community, leaving brokenness and pain
ALL: Hear our cry, O Lord!
ONE: God, we cry out for you to intervene for those who are enduring mental illness, homelessness, and loss in our community
ALL: Here our cry, O Lord!

Feel free to add variations to this Bidding Prayer pattern and response.
Suggested Responsorial: After each prayer, sing chorus: “Out of the Depths, I Cry Lord” (Rachel Wilhelm).

Write or Draw Your Lament

Give time after the sermon for everyone to write or draw their own lament to God. Use the form given from the Lament with Children and Youth in Worship and Daily Life Project (link below) with instructions, or offer your own format for all ages to write or draw their lament to God.

Remind everyone that our God can handle our deepest emotions, our biggest questions, our deepest anger over suffering and injustice. Remind them that Lament is prayer, and that we can come to God, even in protest, at what we see in our world regarding suffering, loss, pain, injustice.

Additional Resources

For additional resources, check out the Practicing Lament with Children and Youth project: valeriemgrissom.com/general-1