Valley Rise Up: PRAYER: "For a City of Peace"

Monday, May 30, 2022

PRAYER: "For a City of Peace"

May 30, 2022

After another day of violence and tension in Jerusalem: SEE HERE

Maker of all lands and partner to all peoples,

How it must break your holy heart

To see us snarling like this, and sneering at one another.

When we fear for our futures,

You would have us turn to you and lean on one another.

And yet, we retreat from our humanness,

We seek refuge in hatred and nationalism.

We chant death. We arm for death. We die together.

We pray for grace and peace in Jerusalem today:

For those who march with angry hearts and fists,

And for the others who imagine, even so,

A City of Peace, Shalom, Salaam.

We pray for a spirit of curious mercy today:

Drawing neighbor to neighbor, and Jew to Arab,

Moving the faithful children of Abraham to pray

Together, and break fasts together, and remove

The yokes of history, cruelty and occupation.

Together.

May all the dear ones in the Old City be

Protected and loved today.

May all the dear ones in East Jerusalem be

Protected and loved today.

May all the dear ones in West Jerusalem be

Protected and loved today.

And may their hearts be turned powerfully

To one another. And so to you.

Amen and Ashe.

Today, like all days, is sacred and strange; and your life, like every other life, is sacred gift and holy opportunity. I hope you're finding ways to receive and cherish this gift: even and especially now, even and especially as unnerving crises shake communities, nations, neighborhoods to the core. If this blog can help you discern the gift, lean into beloved community, share the gift in a circle of celebration and resistance, I'm grateful for the connection. If it can help you build a stronger network of hope with friends and allies, so much the better.

In the shadow of a thousand empires, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear. Speaking truth to power, protesting slavery, deconstructing nuclear weapons, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear. Welcoming weary refugees, organizing with the poorest among us, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear. Making amends for sexism, making amends for homophobia, making amends for anti-Semitism and colonialism, our friends have boldly proclaimed it. Perfect love casts out fear.

WELCOME to VALLEY RISE UP: a blog exploring faith and wonder, ethics and passion. If you find something helpful here, anything helpful here, I hope you'll take it along and make it work for you. More than anything else, I see myself as a spiritual guide and mentor for seekers and believers. In a beautiful and befuddling world, faith offers courage, resilience and tenderness. At least it does for me. On the side, I love to read and write poetry, and I've written a number of hymns and songs as well. In VALLEY RISE UP, I try to keep the conversation alive, exploring grace, peacemaking, human yearning and hope.

"If the inner life is great," said Meister Eckhart 800 years ago, "the outer life will never be puny." Eckhart and others talk about two dimensions in prayer: the horizontal (connecting us in lovingkindness to others) and the vertical (uniting us in love with the Source of all that is and will be). The two intersect in stillness, in reflection, in meditation, in prayer. And this kind of practice is cultivated, tended like a garden, through daily experience and circles of support. There are so many ways into a practice of prayer. For some of us, silence is the key; for others, it's movement, yoga, tai chi, qi gong. The key seems to be discipline, and steady practice. It's a wild and noisy world out there, so find a place and time to step aside and pray. And do it often.

THOMAS MERTON'S PRAYER

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.