It’s Greek for “Lord, have mercy.”

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Today’s Lenten Lesson: Kyrie Eleison

Kyrie Eleison is Greek for “Lord, have mercy.”

After we confess our sins at the start of Mass, we then beg God for mercy.

The opening scene of the 1963 film “Lord of the Flies” shows British prep school boys in uniform marching in formation on the beach of a South Pacific island as they cheerfully sing their upbeat version of “Kyrie Eleison!” By the end of the movie, they are behaving like savages: no uniforms, no marching in formation, no singing, for their teachers had been killed in the plane crash and only the boys survived. The movie is a metaphor for the effects of Original sin, and what the human race would be like without our divine Savior.

When we honestly come to grips with the reality of our situation – fallen human nature as a result of Original sin –  how can we fail to cry out, “Lord, have mercy!”

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