Tag: prayers

God’s Mail Room

computer, candle, coffee

I woke up in the night, worrying
And praying for my candidate to win.
In my heart it feels
Like certain doom
If the other team is elected.

Then I thought about
All the other worrying people
Awake in the night.
Praying as fervently
For their candidate to win
And mine to lose.

What does the Holy One do
With all these earnest, conflicting prayers?

May my prayers
not be sorted
(in the heavenly mail room)
Into bins marked:
“Hopeless cases”
“Addressee not known”
“Features to fix in the next upgrade (Human 2.0)”

But rather
May my prayers be heard and acted on!
May they be filed under:
“Return receipt requested and sent”
“Straight to the Ear of the Creator”
“No worries, God’s got this”

At the end of this day
(or the very long nights to come)
May the Creator have mercy on us …
On our fears,
Our limited imagination,
Our wounded and calloused hearts.

May the Holy One
Crank up healing power
For me, for all of us …
Divided families, communities,
States, nations.

That we might to see and hear,
Know and accept each other
Through eyes and hearts of divine love.

Loss, Grief, and Mystery

IMG_3054

I hear the news
Of the death of a friend.
A wife, a mother, a grandmother.

I am nearly undone
Despite the fact
That I barely knew her.

The short, sweet times
I was in her presence,
I felt the unconditional love
Of a mother.
Of a holy one.

What a mystery
That we cannot measure
The influence of one life,
The hearts touched by her,
The deep connections made with her,
The divine love that flowed through her
To those who were in need.

I give thanks for her life,
For the way she touched me,
A motherless child longing to be loved.

Mother God, comfort those who mourn her death.
Wrap them in your blanket of love
And receive her into your peaceful embrace. Amen.

 
 
Find more of my prayers in my book Christ Beside Me, Christ Before Me: Celtic Blessings.