We have to decide now, before we are sorted into winners and losers, that there is something more important than winning: healing. (Noah Van Niel, Virginia Pilot)
Please join us throughout Election Day, Tuesday November 5, as we pray for the world, our nation, and its leaders. We will celebrate Holy Eucharist at 8:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 6:00 pm in the church. Otherwise, the church will be open throughout the day, to offer you space and time and grounding.
Here are some of my favorite prayers, from Padraig O’Tuama and Mary Oliver:
“The Christian story of incarnation in the body of a boy- a boy whose ancestors were both famous and infamous – is one that can spur us towards living with the courage that is indigenous to us. To be human is to be in the image of something good, and image comes from imagination. To be human is to be in the imagination of God, and the imagination is the source of integrity as well as cracks. To be born is to be born into a story of possibility, a story of failure, a story of imagination and the failure of imagination. To be born is to be born with the possibility of courage. Hello to courage.” (O’Tuama)
“Courage comes from the heart and we are always welcomed by God, the Heart of all being. We bear witness to our faith knowing we are called to live lives of courage, love and reconciliation in the ordinary and extraordinary moments of each day. We bear witness, too, to our failures and our complicity in the fractures of our world. May we be courageous today. May we learn today. May we love today.” (O’Tuama)
“May we find our foundation in the work of Love; demanding, tiring, true and human and holy.” (O’Tuama)
Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak. (Oliver)
In Blackwater Woods
Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light,
are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment,
the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders of the ponds,
and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now.
Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation,
whose meaning none of us will ever know.
To live in this world you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. (Oliver)
Breathe. Exhale. And remember, we are not alone.
P.S. Are you volunteering as a poll worker or judge on Election Day? Email Patty McLean to let her know so we can be sure to pray for you by name at our prayer services on Tuesday.