Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A prayer

I missed the We Are One event on Sunday (too many rehearsals, not enough time..turns out I even knew someone performing at it! Sorry, I digress...). But even if you watched it on television, you missed the invocation, which was given by Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. I found this on the Sojourner's blog. I find it wonderful and challenging, and I ask you to join me in this prayer...


O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears — tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger — anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort — at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience — and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility — open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance — replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

And bless us with compassion and generosity — remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain.
Give him stirring words — we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand — that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace.

Amen.

(see it on youtube by clicking here)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for printing this here... I too missed it... the words look lovely in printed form, just as they sound... so beautiful.

Woman in a Window said...

holy cow
huh
(I've got more but it's a lot of dumbfounded cussing)
that's righteously beautiful
and dare I say,
terribly inspiring.

I hope that many listened
and more
heard.

kayerj said...

prayer is always a good thing

Catherine said...

You're right...I do like that! Thanks for posting it. I'm going to add it to my "Shared Items"... and maybe my prayers as well.

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

A-men to that PM.

Jen said...

Amen, amen, amen.

Like you, I missed the We Are One event. This is extraordinary.

Just powerful.

Bon said...

that was lovely. lovely.

Louise said...

Good words.