The events that transpired on U.S. American soil on the Feast of the Epiphany 2021 are familiar to many around the world as well as students of history. They have also shaken many of us to our cores. We find ourselves in the midst of calls for love and peace that whirl along side expressions of rage, fear and betrayal. In these hard moments, we may be able to see the path of love, but we may not be able to find our way onto it. So this is a prayer for us, for U.S. America, for people everywhere who are hurt, who are afraid, who are feeling things that words cannot adequately describe, but who refuse to let anything shake their faith in love, in justice, in transformation, and in each other.

Dear God,

bless those who have shattered my sense of safety,

bless those who have turned a feast day into famine of justice,

bless the leaders and the followers,

and bless the spaces where I can rage, so I can find a path towards something else.

Bless the hateful,

bless the violent,

bless those who hate me and those who seek to kill me.

Dear God of a love more abundant than I can understand,

please bless those who I cannot find it in myself to bless.

Amen.