Category Archives: Prayers

Prayers to be used, shared, and modified

A Prayer for RBG

Today marks both Rosh Hashanah and the end of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s life. It is a hard time to pray, a hard time to hope, and a hard time to know what to do. Others have spoken more eloquently than I on what actions to take, but here I wanted to offer a short prayer for all of us as we move forward through these next moments and this new year without the #NotoriousRBG.

Dear G-d,

We feel despair closing in all around us. The trumpets do not sound. There is no joyful singing. We feel lost and hopeless. We feel faithless and beaten.

Be with us G-d as we mourn and as we rise. Let our mourning bring fierceness to our struggle. Let our sorrow bring focus to our cause. We cannot give up and we will not give up.

G-d, you are always on the side of humanity and compassion. Let it roar out of us in our every word and every action. Where there is helplessness we will find action. Where there is hate we will sow justice.

May the dying wishes of those who have gone before us be our heartbeat. Let us not waste any more moments fretting, but let us do exactly that which is important to get done.

Amen.

A Prayer to End the Death Penalty

I have been doing a lot of praying as the U.S. Federal government resumes its use of state-sanctioned murder this summer, and as police continue to freely execute black people on the street. As someone who believes in alternative justices and as a person of faith, I work to transform our world and end the death penalty not through the lens of saving those who are different than myself, but because there, but for the grace of God, go I. Those who have been sentenced to die at the hands of our government, or any government, are not lesser people I need to save, but my equals, or in fact, the very people that may save me. I hope that this prayer offers us all renewed strength in our struggle for a more just world.

Dear God,

Let me remember that I am the outcast and the broken, that those who have been accused of harm are no different from myself. Remind us God that we have all committed acts of harm and that we have all felt the pain of being harmed. Let us find strength in this unity, let us find power in this unity, and let us use this unity to end not only the death penalty but all unjust practices that divide us. May we act always as people united by your unending love for us all.

Amen

إن شاء الله InShaAllah

 

God willing, the hungry will be fed.

God willing, the stranger will be welcomed home.

God willing, we will see peace in our lifetime.

God willing, all will be loved.

The thing is, I think God is willing.

I think it is us who aren’t willing.

We are afraid of the world we would create if we stopped waiting for God’s hand to descend and ended wars and fed the hungry with our own hands.

So maybe our prayer should be:

God willing, our fear abates.

God willing, we stop waiting.

God willing, we start acting like God already willed it.

إن شاء الله

إن شاء الله

إن شاء الله

Amen.