Saturday Prayer

My friend Dayalan Devanesen, director of Roofs for the Roofless, of Chennai, India, sent me a photo of Gurdon Brewster’s sculpture given to him by his mother. It is ‘Christ Dancing Off the Cross’. On the last of the waiting nights for whatever the “power” is going to be, it seems important to hold carefully both the cross and the dance of our times.

As a resident of the United States the terrible racism infecting every level of authority and every individual white person is deeply on my mind. And yet, I don’t want to offer a prayer that comes only out of these feelings. RevGals is a global community, and often folks from the United States assume that what is happening within our boundaries is the most important news in the world. Please forgive us for this. And yet, somehow …
Prayer for Pentecost Eve

God, on this eve of Pentecost,
we remember all the broken feathers
burnt out matches, and
breathlessness of the year past.

Help us to remember
that the Holy Spirit, surprising,
arrived on the tenth day after ascension,
giving not one, but two gifts —

the power of voice
for those who needed to speak,
and, the power of listening
for those who needed to be quiet
and listen for the words
sent to each one
in a radically re-Babeled world.

Because of these two powers
your church began.

So does the Holy Spirit come again —
help us to reach out our hearts
for holy voice
or life-changing attention.
amen.

Maren C. Tirabassi’s most recent book is A Child Laughs: Prayers of Justice and Hope and she blogs at http://giftsinopenands@wordpress.com/ She’s a United Church of Christ, US, pastor and a writer.

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