Father!
Your Spirit told us
through the mouth of Paul
that the whole earth
and we too
as your children
groan
in the pangs of a birth!
It is easy, Lord,
to grasp and affirm this.
For there are passages
so difficult
and hours
so filled with anguish
that the image really applies:
they are labour pains!
Something is being born.
Who knows?
A world in which men and women can breathe,
a more just, a more human world!
Helder Camara, 1909-1999, Brazilian Catholic Archbishop, advocate for the urban poor
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We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
prayer & verse 