A Prayer for Our Times
Forgive Us Our Righteousness.
O Father God, the Lord of all,
the one who sent your son
who mother-like her people called
to come to her for help
and safety from the coming
holocaust of Rome or Hun
and later still the Teuton
and now the terror wreaked by
Slav on brother, sister Slav today. . .
peoples, nations, folk,
who had no option
but to choose to suffer
as their hard ignoble goal
until what we term providence
had stayed the hand that held the steel
that ravaged worlds and lands.
You, who gave us peace of sorts,
to you we offer our request –
to save us now
from lynching trees that bear strange fruit,
from those who massacre the young
from all who threaten old and young
whose dreams of justice fade.
How soon, how soon,
I ask and plead and beg
before you enter in once more
to strike the heart of darkness –
though it be found in each of us?
How long before you intercede
(analyses now done and sent
to friends who worship you this Lent)?
One thing remains
for friends – for me –
one thing remains to do:
repent.
