The first of six in our Lenten Series “Good Lord Deliver Us: The Great Litany as Exile Survival Kit.” n a moment when the center has collapsed and the church finds itself wandering in a wilderness not of its choosing, the Great Litany and the First Sunday in Lent meet us with the same invitation: honesty. This reflection explores what it means for the via media to live as a people in exile and to rediscover lament as the first act of faithfulness. hrough Scripture—Jesus in the wilderness, Adam and Eve hiding, the psalmist confessing, Paul proclaiming grace—we learn that deliverance begins not with solutions but with truth-telling. Lament is the language of exiles, the prayer that refuses to hide, the cry from the depths to the God who still hears.