I've been feeling pretty melancholy for about a week now, just pervasively sad about the world (the big world as well as my little corner of it) and increasingly skeptical about my ability to make a difference in it. I'm aware that this is a risk in my profession and I've been remarkably free from it for 23 years but the last week has been hard. So it's in that context that I read this prayer this morning and it made me tear up and it made me feel the stirrings of hope. (Also, this is a prayer written by Franciscans posted on Facebook by a Quaker and then copied by a Baptist . . . that right there makes me just a little happy.) I hope it speaks to you as well.
A Franciscan Prayer
May God bless you with discomfort with easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. Amen.
May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.
2 comments:
I'm glad you encountered this prayer at a time when you probably were able to appreciate it the most. And I'm glad you shared it - would that we were all blessed by these things that most of us aren't wise enough to ask for.
If the "you" becomes "me", and is answered with the affirmative, then I suppose I could say that I'm feeling rather blessed these days...
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