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The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster

O Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery;
may the week culminate in prayer and praise
may the day build toward observance and devotion.
may this moment draw us into
the raw vulnerability of your presence.

All week long, we fabricate harsh
borders between one another and you.
and somehow our desire for justice and mercy freezes
and a fog of distraction forms across our vision.

And now, in this sacred place, we ask: let the walls fall
let frozen yearning melt and set us on a clear path.

Unclouded, we can see one another.
Unimpeded, we can welcome you,
you who is already here in our midst.

It is attention, kind regard,
awareness of one another that we so long for.
Our openness forms a doorway into awe, the center of our body radiating your presence.

We reclaim the patience needed to lay bare our lives to you.

So hear our prayers:

For the worries that sit deep
in the chambers of our bodies.

For our own aches.
For our reluctance to do
or say what we know to be true.

For our immobilization,
unable to open wide.

For our most dear, our beloved,
our kin, our clan, our chosen family.

For their anxiety, puzzling within.
For their pain.
For their impossible futures.
For their deepest joys shared.

For their thriving.
For connection to them, eye to eye,
voice to voice, hand in hand.

For our community. For any outer or inner lack.
For the risk and win of participation.
For the reclaiming of collective understanding.
For our nation and the world.

For the places where there is fear, bring purposeful calm.
For the places where there is violence, bring healing peace.

For the places where there is complacency,
bring a churning movement toward justice.
And we name aloud in our hearts the places and people, the situations, and longings of our most tender lives.
Lord hear our prayer. Our Father…. Amen.