This Week's Prayer

Bolivia's Cerro Rico (stock photo of Los Tiempos [Bolivia])

Dear world we so little control,

First let us hold, let us connect, let us open our hearts.
Let us hold:
The wonder and majesty of the cosmos: some hundred billion stars in our galaxy, some 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
The beauty of autumn coloring our region of this planet.
The small and powerful, simple and ordinary, acts of kindness going on all around us.
The human -- indeed, the animal -- capacity, flourishing everywhere, for love.

First let us hold, let us connect, let us open our hearts.
And hold also the world’s pain.
Those in West Africa with Ebola, their families and anxious neighbors.
The people of California with no respite from the drought. Some homes have been without running water for five months.
The people of Bolivia, where the legal age for children to work has been lowered to 12; especially the miners of silver in Cerro Rico, known as the mountain that eats men.
The people of Japan as the death toll following the unexpected eruption of Mount Ontake rises.

First let us hold, let us connect, let us open our hearts.
And hold also the world’s hopes.
The West African aid workers and medical personnel fighting Ebola.
The people of Hong Kong in their quest for freedom of choice in leadership.
The people of the middle east as the Turkish parliament vote on the way forward in the conflict with the Islamic state.
The protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, hoping for justice and equity from those assigned to protect them.

First, dear world we so little control, let us hold, let us connect, let us open our hearts to all that is, all of it.
For in that connection, we are made ready to act in compassion, as agents of justice and peace.
May it be so.