7 December 2022 – Pause & Pray

(Image: https://myscena.org/events/magnificat/#prettyPhoto/0/)

Our last Pause & Pray of the semester is written and curated by Alexis Carter Thomas.

In this season of waiting, longing, hoping, and listening in the sweet darkness, we make time to pause and pray to remember that which the madness, mundanity, hard realities can cause us to forget.

Pray:

In a society that grooms us for battle–
to be combative, caustic, and cancel-ready.
Lead me towards paths of peace.
In a weary world that longs for peace–
not in simple proclamations of pacifism or partisan politics,
but in the ways of peacemaking.
Teach me to seek justice.
When the public square calls us to fight–
to assert we are right and to demonize those who are wrong,
lead us by your Spirit to be one calling out in the wilderness–
to declare with our words and works that there is One who calls us to another way.
Help me to be a vessel of holy wonder who trusts in You.
Show me when to listen, to contemplate, to act, and to cry aloud.
When you call me to forsake my plans for peacemaking,
give me courage to deconstruct, tell the truth, or burn down the system.
And when the waiting seems too long, turn my heart towards peace, justice, and trust–
believing that you, Holy One, in your time will turn that which I cannot.

Meditate:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” -Matthew 3:2

“My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all the tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.” -Rory Cooney