mother and daughter by GiselaFotografie
Dear God, you alone know the loneliness
and thus the terror of our lives.
Indeed you know us better than we can know ourselves.
Give us your knowledge of us
so that we might not be so alone.
Be with those who seem simply lost, abandoned, alienated
from friends and from you.
Heal us with your unrelenting hospitality,
so that we are capable of breaking through
the splendid isolation we create,
which we call freedom and power.
Help us to be touched and be able to touch
without violence.
We know that is possible only because you have touched us
with the body and blood of your Son.
Thank you for that. Amen.
Stanley Hauerwas, 1940- , American ethicist and theologian
______________________
If the Lord had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
prayer & verse 