My God, I need to have a sign of your grace.
Serve me your sacraments,
the first fruits of your Kingdom.
I thirst for smiles,
for sweet odours,
for soft words,
for firm gestures,
for truth and goodness,
and for triumphs
(no matter how small)
of justice.
You know, O God, how hard it is to survive captivity
without any hope of the Holy City.
Sing to us, God, the songs of the promised land.
Serve us your manna in the desert.
Let there be, in some place,
a community of men, women, elderly, children, and
new-born babies
as a first fruit,
as our appetiser,
and our embrace of the future.
Rubem A Alves, 1933-2014, Brazilian theologian and philosopher
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But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
image by Kashyap Kinshuk
