This is my city, Lord:
I’ve flown over it,
driven around it,
walked through it,
and I love it.
Its concrete chasms, its quiet parks,
its massive buildings and its tiny houses,
its suburbs rich and poor.
But most of all, Lord, its people…
My city, Lord. Your city.
Remember, Lord, there was one city
over which you stood and wept.
Do you weep over this city?
With its hunger, its greed, its cruelty?
Its foolishness and heartbreak?
Lord, I believe you do.
prayer used over Belfast, Northern Ireland
from A Procession of Prayers, edited by John Carden
_____________________________
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying,
“Would that you, even you, had known on this day
the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
prayer & verse 
