Sunday Prayer: For Womxn

Have mercy on our tears, O God,
for we have wept ever since
Hagar’s heart broke over Ishmael
and Rachel lamented her children.

If we have won your favor,
let our tears nourish protest.

Have mercy on our rage, O God,
for we have said “no” to death
since the days of Shiphrah and Puah
and the days of Vashti and Esther.

If we have won your favor,
let our rage be a fire.

Have mercy on our pain, O God,
for we have been torn apart
by the Jephthahs of the world and
targeted systematically by men like Haman.

If we have won your favor,
let our pain be vindicated with justice.

Cut off the hands that have hit us;
remove the feet that have tripped us;
tear out the eyes that have degraded us.

And when they have been our hands, our feet, our eyes,
that have violated and harmed a sister or a sibling,
forgive and correct us. Take our brokenness
and from it bring about reparation.

These are our tears, O God, our rage, and our pain —
a swollen stream that floods our lives.
Give us power in your name
to buoy one another in hope so that
none might drown but the demons that seek to discard us.

We pray in the power of your name. Amen.

Rachel G. Hackenberg‘s book with co-author Martha Spong, Denial Is My Spiritual Practice (and Other Failures of Faith), strives to make sense of faith through the trials & failures of life. Rachel has also written Writing to God and Sacred Pause.

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