Holy One, When we want to linger in shadows, you expose us to light. When we want to slump into a corner, you lift us up in your presence. When we think our words, our actions, our lives have no effect, you remind us that we are leading people in surprising and unexpected ways. So […]
Cradle Your Children: Prayers for Europe’s Snows, Syria, Parkland, and Ethiopia’s Emergency (March 1, 2018)
Holy One, You are a God of Might and Majesty, Tenderness and Vulnerability. You are the one who casts stars into the heavens and who brings forth the first green shoots from the fertile ground. All of Creation cannot hold your glory; and yet you cradle us in gentle wings of mercy. All this is […]
Be Still and Know: A Prayer Amid Gunfire, Bombings, and the Cries of Refugees (February 22, 2018)
“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) O God, O God, my God, our world is full of anything but stillness. There is no silence to be found, I fear; no quiet about. We hear of your “still small voice”, we know You have taught that there is virtue in silence, we […]
It Seems Very Odd, Lord: Prayers for Cape Town’s Drought, Parkland, and a Week of Crashes (February 15, 2018)
It seems very odd, Lord, that people call for January to be a month to try being vegan when Lent was a period, 40 days, in the time before world trade hit our food markets when it was a necessity. We pray for those to whom being vegan is not a life style choice […]
A Liturgy of the Hours: Prayers After the Iran Earthquake and the Rancho Tehama School Shooting (November 16, 2017)
Note: The writer this week is using the framework of the Liturgy of the Hours (Opus Dei i.e. Work of God) so sanctifying the day with prayer. The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of […]
Extremists for Love: Prayers on Martin Luther King Day for Refugees, Nigeria, and Flight MH370 (January 19, 2017)
At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of the extremist. … But as I continue to think about the matter I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love – “Love your enemies, bless them that […]
Enough: A Prayer After the Peshawar School Massacre (December 18, 2014)
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. – John 13:34 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. – Matthew 11:29 I have come into the […]
What Does This Love Look Like: Prayers for Malala’s Nobel Prize and Boko Haram’s Captives (October 30, 2014)
One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a […]