Christ, Jesus our friend and companion in the streets, in police stations, on curbsides, at take out restaurants, in hospital waiting rooms, in public health offices that are conducting contact tracing phone calls, in hallways of governments, and with those who listen to testimony. You, Lord, who wait for us to open the door, to admit our faults and to forgive. Give us courage to do the hard acts, to love mightily and give tenderly.
Holy Spirit – comfort us. Soften our touch, blend our voices, clarify our minds and fire up our hearts for the work at hand.
Oh Lord, we ask for your guidance in action, word and thought.
Great One, who breathed life into clay, who continues to mold us in your many-colored image, open our hearts wide, crack them open, get our juices flowing for justice and mercy.
Holy Mystery, you carry us when we are sorrowful, broken down in deepest grief and unable to go further. Give us rest. Give us a peace that is beyond our ability to find alone.
Our Higher Power, you have shaken the foundations of what we thought to be order, you have removed the blindfolds to our unjust acts and collusion. You have upended our sense of control and turned over our tables of normalcy. Help us to seek your will and turn to your light, to seek your word.
We attend to words in the news of “police reform,” “migrant worker,” “essential workers,” “health equity,” “social distancing,” “multisystem inflammatory syndrome,” “data control,” “roiled,” “tossed out,” “I can’t breathe,” “sir,” “spiritual bypassing,” “voting,” “voter suppression,” “caught on film.”
Let us not forget words like “hunger,” “poverty,” “deserted,” “overrun,” “surge of cases,” “marginalized.”
We pray for Brazil and its respected public health care system and epidemiologic surveillance that has pushed back against the president and ministers who sought to suppress and minimize the data on deaths and cases due to COVID-19. We pray for the people of Manus, where the virus has circulated deep into the Amazon raising a monthly death toll to three times the average. We pray for those protesting for better health care in Paraisopolis favela in São Paulo.
We pray for a family of the Qom Indigenous Peoples who suffered at the hands of 15 police officers in Fontana, Argentina during an illegal raid. We pray that the demands for administrative and judicial investigation are swift and thorough and that the detained and beaten family members receive the care they need. We pray for the ending of institutional racism here and in all places.
Strengthen your people in Ghana as borders are closed and streets emptied. Give courage to the health care staff of Dzake Health Clinic and Peki Hospital as they prepare for COVID-19 with minimal PPE and a focus on prevention with hand-washing and visitor limitation. Help us to lean out new windows to hear sounds in other communities.
We pray for the human rights of the citizens of Hong Kong, China and the furtherance of common law principles and all types of freedoms including freedom of expression, publication, information, assembly, religion, association, that they will endure under the “one country, two systems principle.”
Continue to empower the Indian Samaritan’s work in New Delhi, India, as educators delivered coupons to the neediest families. On distribution days the coupon is exchanged for a Kit which includes 5 kg of rice, 5 kg of wheat flour, 1 liter of oil, 1 kg of sugar, 250 grams of tea, 100 grams of chili powder, 100 grams of coriander powder, 100 grams of turmeric, 1 kg of lentils, 3 bars of bathing soap, 3 bars of detergent soap, and 1 bottle of hand sanitizer. These gifts might seem hopelessly small in the face of a growing pandemic where hospitals have to turn away patients due to lack of space, but we trust that you, in your mercy, will amplify this Kit, these your loaves and fishes nourishing community.
Amen.
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