Like so many others, Lord,
I stand helpless
in the face of this week’s news…
Like so many others
I feel too small and weak
to make a difference…
Like so many others I worry
that my « thoughts and prayers »
just aren’t enough…
But there’s hostility and enmity,
division and disunity,
old grudges and resentments,
ill will, mistrust and bitterness
hard feelings and aggression,
conflict, feuds and fighting
in the bosom of my family,
in the parish where I pray,
at my job or at my school,
in my next door neighbors’ yards,
in the town I call my own
and in any place where I’m at war
and need to work for peace…
And in all these places, Lord,
I’m not helpless,
I have sway
to make a move and make a difference;
I’m not weak,
I have the strength
to make change that makes peace;
I’m not alone,
your grace abounds
in my thoughts and in my prayers
and empowered by your mercy
I’ll make peace, Lord, where I’m able,
where I can and where I must…
Protect me, Lord, while I’m awake
and watch over me while I sleep
that awake, I might keep watch with you
and asleep, rest in your peace…
A note about tonight’s song… The Prayer of Saint Francis seemed the obvious choice for tonight’s prayer – and I was pleased to find this setting, new to me, by Sarah McLachlan. Looking for the more familiar? Check back here.
Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
and it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
