Pauca Verba is Latin for A Few Words.

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Open my heart's eyes that I may see the wondrous blessings of creation. Psalm 119
 

The 19th century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote,/ "The dearest events are summer rain."/ May we never waste God's gifts,/ but treasure them all,/ especially the gift of water./ We pray for those who live where there is drought/ or where water is unsafe to drink,/ or where war has destroyed the infrastructure that delivers water./ We pray to the Lord.

This July 4th weekend,/ we pray to understand freedom more fully and spiritually./ We ask to be freed from whatever keeps us from loving well:/ fear,/ judgments,/ superficial or false religion,/ entitlement,/ superiority,/ racism,/ unresolved resentments./ We pray to the Lord.

As fireworks light up the sky,/ may Christ light up minds,/ where we confuse freedom with the pursuit of rights which are useful only to ourselves or the mindset to which we ascribe./ We pray for Christians who are more familiar with their political agenda than they are with the sayings of Jesus./ We pray to the Lord.

In its assault against Ukraine,/ Russia is using thermobaric-vaporizing-vacuum bombs which melt metal at three thousand degrees/ and consume such massive amounts of oxygen,/ no living thing,/ even those hidden underground/ can survive./ In this invasion,/ civilians are dying by incineration,/ starvation,/ suffocation and execution./ We pray boldly for God to intervene by the voice and power of the Risen Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

In the summer time we pray for the earth to heal where there are dangerous storms or destructive fires./ For the safety of vacationers and travelers./ Protect those who rescue and help wherever there are disasters,/ injuries and loss of life./ We pray to the Lord.

Strengthen Pope Francis who struggles with incapacity and pain/ but who seems intent on going to Canada to apologize for the part the Church played in the abuse of indigenous children./ Heal the Church wherever its sins cause harm and pain./ Give the Church a truly humble and repentant heart./ We pray to the Lord.




Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Prayer Before the Madonna with the Vetch Flower

 


Here is a triptych (a three-paneled image) by an anonymous 15th century artist. The painting is titled, Madonna with the Vetch Flower. That's St. Catherine of Alexandria on the left and St. Barbara on the right. The image in the center is remarkable. Mary's folded arms hold securely the Infant who seems to be squirming out of his clothes. He holds his Mother by the chin and a rosary in his left hand. 

Mary delicately holds a vetch flower in her left hand. Vetch belongs to the pea family. Growing on a twine-ing vine it is perfectly symbolic of spirituality — the soul's searching. Psalm 105:4 says: "We search for you and your strength; we continue to seek your face."


Rosary of Mary, one —

  your presence comforts me.

Rosary of Mary, two —

  the thought of you makes me glad.

Rosary of Mary, three —

  the precious things of children, 

  flowers, forests and oceans.

Rosary of Mary, four —

  hold us securely in our planetary stress.

Rosary of Mary, five — 

  all gazing.

Rosary of Mary, six —

  in this moment's breath.

Rosary of Mary, seven —

  number of fullness.

  Amen.

Father Stephen Morris

  


  

  



Sunday, June 26, 2022

The Korsun Mother of God and a Priest's Life



Father Michael Himes died recently, a Brooklyn priest who taught me in seminary in the 1970's. Much has been written about Father Himes of course, as he was a brilliant theologian who made every theological point immediately meaningful for our own time and lives. But as I wrote to a classmate- friend recently, I remember the precise moment (and even where I was sitting in class) when I realized more than anything that this priest loved us. He never spoke to us as if he thought we were stupid or that he was above us, or that we were a waste of his time. That was an important lesson for us who were preparing for priesthood. How grateful I am that our paths had crossed.

Steve Miller wrote a reflective essay about Father Himes. Here's the paragraph I think was most important.

Father Himes told the story of a young woman traveling to the New World with a female companion. The companion went above deck for some fresh air but the young woman stayed below attending to an expectant mother. A rogue wave surged over the deck washing the companion overboard and into the sea, where she perished. The young woman  whose life was spared was Michael Himes' great grandmother. He made the point that for the trillion upon trillion upon trillion circumstances, decisions and twists had to go just right for him to come into existence and how "very extraordinary love" had made his life and each of ours. 

 

And here is a 19th century icon of the Korsun Mother of God. We see the Mother of God and the Holy Child from the shoulder up. Faces and hands. the Mother of God wears a terra-cotta colored maphorian (mantle) — she is not a goddess, but of the earth, and as such she is one with us. Notice there are folds in her mantle that echo those found in nature: the ridges of a scallop shell, the pleats of a palm branch, the gills of a mushroom which springs up overnight. 

The icon is filled with intense emotion. The elongated fingers, the intertwined hands, the inclination of heads and faces pressed to each other, the tightness of lips, even the furrowed brows. The Christ Child seems to have been swept up by and into the Mother's love — perhaps an image of the soul's longing and aspiring to higher, spiritual things. Notice the Child has a good grip on Mary's mantle. We need to "hold on tight" these days of stress and sadness, lies, violent death and clay-minded power displays. Hold on tight!

The Christ holds the Gospel-Word in a little white scroll. But the scroll is yet to be unrolled. There is time for that. Right now he wants for us to know that we are blessed and held in the "very extraordinary love," that marvelously and wondrously secures each of us each day.


Thursday, June 23, 2022

Intercessions ~ Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jubilant June


Wednesday is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul./ The word apostle means one who is sent out./ And ours is an apostolic faith./ May we break any bad habit of keeping Christ to ourselves as some kind of personal treasure,/ becoming instead the people whose lives deliver God's good news of welcoming love,/ justice and peace./We pray to the Lord.

May God keep us from a spirit of monotony/  as we return to the long summer weeks of liturgical green,/ seeing rather an invitation to our own green-ing and growing in the close-at-hand mystery of Christ's bright rising/ which encourages new beginnings born of love./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the places which are afflicted by dangerous summer heat and drought./ For the safety of travelers and vacationers./ For those who get no rest away from work./ May the summer months bring with them a personal renewal./ We pray to the Lord.

As people once would have listened to the priests and prophets of old,/ today many Christians listen and heed the rude-growing media-voices which foment discontent,/ conspiracy and fear,/ those who peddle lies/ and subtle justifications for violence and menace./ May we come to know once again the clear and clean voice of Christ./ We pray to the Lord. 

We pray for those who are broken-hearted,/ who suffer the death of dear ones to violence or accident,/ who can't break out of poverty,/ who are overwhelmed by failure,/ sadness,/ prolonged sickness,/ who never have a good day./ We pray to the Lord.

The assault upon poor Ukraine spares nothing,/ even the children,/ the churches,/ the elderly grandparents,/ the forests and the animals./ We pray for those who survive the relentless awfulness unleashed upon them,/ who live in tears,/ hunger,/ wound and disease,/ flame,/ smoke and decay./ Rise up,/ O Christ,/ in a display of your Easter Rising of life over death./ We pray to the Lord. 

A deep darkness is spreading over our nation./ Gun death occurs every day now,/ in schools,/ parks,/ churches,/ synagogues,/ supermarkets,/ malls,/ theatres,/ wherever people gather./ How terrible the thought,/ but could it be that we are more intent on protecting deadly weapons over the lives of even young children?/ Dare we ask for the mind of Christ?/ We pray to the Lord.



Tuesday, June 21, 2022

In June ~ Lilium Candidum ~ Madonna Lily



This is Lilium Candidum popularly called, Madonna Lily. I first experienced this plant, (sight and scent), years ago when I was a seminarian and visiting the Biblical Gardens at the Episcopal Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City. Since then and whenever I've had my own garden, I've tried cultivating Madonna Lily which can be a little difficult because the bulbs are ideally planted in July so they can sprout a tuft of green leaves before the frost. It's hard to find a bulb company that will comply, insisting October is soon enough. I disagree. Anyway, this year, cultivating my garden behind an enclosing wall and having found a company that would get the bulbs to me sooner than October, I've had success. The waxy flower and the pleasing scent are a delight. Here's the bulb company's description of Madonna Lily.

In cultivation since the time of Minoans, 1500 years before the birth of Christ, this lily probably reached western Europe via Phoenician traders. From there it quickly naturalized throughout much of the continent. The outwardly facing pure white flowers with yellow throats adorn tall stems in early summer and gently perfume the garden. Each stem holds 8 to 15 funnel-shaped florets. 

I've written here a number of times over the years that prior to the English Reformation all the flowers of Europe had Marian associations — hence Marigold, Lady's Mantle, Lady's slipper, etc. Here of course, Madonna Lily refers to the Virgin Mary.

And here is a lovely image of the Annunciation painted by the Renaissance (16th c) Dominican nun, Sister Plautilla Nelli. The themes are traditional: Mary wears robes of blue and red. Her hands are folded across her heart. Gabriel's colored wings echo those of the archangel painted by Fra Angelico.  And for our purposes, Gabriel carries Lillium Candidum (Madonna Lily) symbolic of Mary's purity. But if I may, Mary's purity is much bigger than sexual integrity, but an anticipation of Christ's beatitude- blessing, "Blessed are the clean of heart." Mary is the first disciple. She blazes the trail, going ahead of us who hope to possess clean hearts — hearts without hatred, authentic, generous, Christ-attentive hearts. 




It pleases me to think

 that when God imagined this flower,

 God knew that it would one day be embraced as emblematic of the woman,

 who with a clean heart, 

fragrant with love,

 would be the Mother of God's ever progressing Word

become one of us.




Sunday, June 19, 2022

On Entering A Church

 


Here is the door to the 11th century church (before 1086) in Gloucestershire, England — St. Edward aka The Parish Church of Stow-on-the-Wold. The great yew trees on either side of the church seem to have become part of the building itself. They have sent down deep roots — perhaps summoning us to be rooted in worship and the service of love. 

Traveling around England while a seminarian in the early 1970's and visiting so many of the great medieval cathedrals and churches, I came across the following prayer inside a door, like the door at St. Edwards. Maybe we could make a phone note (until we've memorized it) to pray upon entering our own church.  I wonder if we could give a copy to the pastor who might pass it on to the whole parish. It might cut down on some of the incessant and distracting talking which fills our churches before Mass. When I was a boy, church was silent as we waited for the bells which signaled the start of Mass. I fear we are rapidly losing our sense of the invisible and the vertical.


Enter Church

As if the floor

Within were gold,

And every wall

Of Jewels

All of wealth untold;

As if a choir

in robes of fire

were singing here.

Nor shout, nor rush,

but hush...

for God is here.






Thursday, June 16, 2022

Intercessions ~ Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

Eastern Christian altar prepared for Communion
   

Today we honor and pray for our fathers and grandfathers,/ but not only for them/ but for fathers everywhere,/ mindful of those who father young families,/ for fathers who have failed their families,/ for fathers who are exhausted,/ worried,/ away from their families,/ underpaid or addicted./ We pray to the Lord.

On the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ,/ we pray for ourselves and those who are with us at Mass today./ May we worship well,/ with attentive,/ inclusive,/ generous and clean hearts./ We pray to the Lord.

The word Eucharist means thanksgiving./ Grant that our Christian lives would be marked by gratitude,/ freed of complaint,/ entitlement,/ negative judging,/ cynicism and waste./ We pray to the Lord.

Eucharist is the sacrament of unity./ Our country refers to itself as one nation;/ our Church refers to itself as one faith./ We ask for the healing we need,/ weakened as we are by growing violence/ fear,/ suspicion and hatred of persons perceived as other./ We pray to the Lord. 

In the Eucharist,/ Jesus feeds us in our spiritual hunger./ We pray for those who are physically hungry,/ May we do what we can to help./ And we pray for those who hunger to be included,/ who hunger for peace,/ hope,/ meaning,/ justice./ We pray to the Lord.

Wendell Berry wrote,/ "There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places."/ May we understand/ and care./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for Pope Francis whose ministry is slowed these days because of knee problems./ We ask for his healing./ We pray as well for those who are against him,/ even clerics,/ and for those who hope he might be able to visit them soon in Canada and Africa./ We pray to the Lord.




Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Psalm 89 ~ Before the Mountains...

 

These now and again reflections on the psalms might be called a gloss. A dining room table, a runway model's hair, a car's wax finish can be said to be glossy. Here, a gloss is a kind of over voice which ponders the deepening spiritual meaning of the psalms for living today. But we must be prepared as the psalms are not easy listening, white bread, a walk in the park. They can take us to a place where, left to ourselves, we might prefer not to go.

 Verse 1: "O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next." Ancestry/Genealogy sites are a "dime a dozen" these days. But for all the information they may yield about where we come from, do they tell a faith story? Someone or something has brought me to faith — from one generation to the next, right up to today. Do I know my faith story? And not a few of us have come to faith by way of others who were threatened because they believed. I may well have come to faith because grandparents and great grandparents (and folks before them) persevered in believing, God is my refuge.

Verse 2: "Before the mountains were born...you are God, without beginning or end." Our sense of time is tiny. As the world goes, the United States is a very young nation. We don't get high marks for knowing even the history of our own country let alone the events of the world. Still, God has been God before there were mountains; before the earth was formed. And God will be God long after our little planet wastes away (by our own doing?) and its sun burns out. 

Verse 3: "You turn man back to dust..." And God is God despite our age-denying serums and surgeries. God calls the shots. It's God's call when I return to the dust. It is said that the person who will live to age one hundred and fifty, has already been born. How long do we think we can dodge death? Do I really want to live that long?

Verse 4: "To your eyes a thousand years are like yesterday, come and gone, no more than a watch in the night." That is, the way God sees things, our lives are the length of a night-shift. 

Verses 5 and 6: "You sweep men away like a dream, like grass which springs up in the morning and by evening withers and fades." Tsunamis, accidents, hurricanes, tornadoes, avalanches, massacres, can sweep people away. But I don't think God is behind any of that. Much of our swift demise is our own fault. Even if climate changes are part of a natural cycle, surely how we live today is only accelerating and intensifying the changes which are bringing about the death of the world's poorest people. Put a battlefield grade weapon in the hands of a crazed 18 year old and unspeakable things may well happen.  Life is fragile. We want to think we should live to a ripe old age. But there are no guarantees to that end.

Verses 7-11: "We are destroyed in your anger...who understands the power of your anger and fears the strength of your fury?" That's not a Christian view. Does God strike us down in furious anger? I don't think so. Maybe we project our own furious anger on to God. We want God to be as angry as we are.  Even so, we're so enthralled with entertainment, I imagine that if God's flaming apocalyptic angel appeared over the nation's capitol to take the country in hand, there'd be people rushing out to make a video of it — a selfie with the sword-wielding angel. I've seen priests holding phone-cameras in the air during the consecration at Lourdes or at a pope's Mass. We've lost something.

Verse 12: "Make us know the shortness of our life that we may gain wisdom of heart." But are we teachable? Has there been a loss of docility? Google University. Notice the psalmist asks for wisdom of heart. Pope Francis said recently, "We're not supposed to be encyclopedias." I sense the pope was suggesting the learning we need to attend to is learning of the inner life. Soul-learning. I met a man who boasted of having read the entire eight hundred and forty eight page Catechism of the Catholic Church. When he finished his boast I asked, "And?" He had no response, as if reading that huge tome was somehow an end in itself.

Verse 13: "Lord, relent!" Some Catholics are waiting for God to do the big smack down — "Punish those who are not like me." Moscow Patriarch Kirill claims that Russia has a right to invade Ukraine because of the West's "gay parades." But it isn't that way. "Show pity to your servants." God has shown pity to the world already. God's pity is Jesus Christ. Truth be told, there are not a few Christians for whom that thought would never occur. Or they think pity means soft. God's pity is God's enduring love. Through the world's most awful sins — the sin of reducing Ukraine to dust, the sins that make for the massacre of classrooms filled with young children — God's love endures. If we think it's not possible, we might witness the enduring love of the mother whose son is on death row.

Verse 14: "In the morning, fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days." Here, the psalmist comes around. Something shakes him out of his running resentments. "In the morning fill me with your love." That's a poetic way of saying, we are always beginning again. The manifest love of God is more meaningful than all else  — it fills his days with happiness. 

Verse 15: "Give us joy to balance our affliction for the years when we knew misfortune." That is, I can rehearse all the old tales, the injustices I've suffered, the failures, the slights, the stupid mistakes, the being misunderstood or cheated, the heart ache, and over all is the joy of knowing how loved I am by God. How is it that my life is of such value to God, that God would do anything (indeed, has done everything) so as not to lose me. Yet again, gratitude is the heart beat of the Christian spiritual life — not ticking off boxes on a list of right dogma, rules and ritual.

Verse 16: "Show forth your work to your servants." But showing forth God's work is what WE should be doing. The churches of North America and Europe are emptying — fast. Some Christians blame everyone and everything else for the hemorrhaging. But is there something we should have been doing all along? Some works we should have been revealing? Is there something about our own hypocrisy that has resulted in so many — especially young people — turning off? What of Christ's Gospel have we missed? Is God necessarily shown glory because we've built splendid churches? I'd suggest lives and minds, changed and transformed by Christ show forth God's work. Truth be told, Christians often think and act like everyone else. Pope Francis recently spoke of priests who live like pagans. Are the media elites the ones who really form minds in this country? Are they the new high priests?

Verse 17: "Give success to the work of our hands." That doesn't mean, "Oh God, help us win this war," as holy water is sprayed over the rockets, jets, bombs and camouflaged soldiers, or, "Oh God, help us to make the diocesan campaign a success." Rather, Oh God, that our minds would be freed of the cultural-political stupidity that is taking us down — the propaganda of advertisers and the talking TV heads who spew awful lies. Give success to our growing up. Give success to our maturing. Give success to our transformation. St. Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is the human person fully alive." Wow, what does that mean? I know someone who day-trades online, pleased to announce (fully conscious) of his war-profiteering. "Give success to the work of our hands," that is, re-create us that we would live authentic, beautiful lives, as Christ has lived his.

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Praying the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Tradescantia Occidentalis
 

God is one. But within God, in God's own inner life, there are three persons in relationship: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each possess the fullness of divine life simultaneously, without depriving the others. This vision of God as a divine community or family of persons changes everything for us. God is no static divinity living off in isolation. In Baptism, we are immersed, soaked, flooded with this communal divine life. 

Here is my prayer for today's Feast of the Holy Trinity. The first line of the verse brings forward a word to describe the inner life of the one God who lives in a unity of persons.  The second line identifies something (even light-hearted) that we know comes in threes. The third line picks up the theme of three-ness and calls upon the relational God to bless, protect and transform some aspect of our weary world. 


The relationship of the Holy Trinity

of the three-petaled flower,

of the three-lobed leaf,

be over our climate changing planet

in need of the rescue

only we can offer —

when hearts are converted to the 

treasuring of life.


The harmony of the Holy Trinity

of red, white and blue,

be over this nation,

harming,

even killing itself

with hatred,

addiction,

weaponization

and suspicious fear.


The company of the Holy Trinity

of the a-b-c to x-y-z

be over our successes and failures.

giving insight and energy

to begin again, 

and yet again.


The household of the Holy Trinity

of breakfast, lunch and dinner

be over our world,

hungry with drought

and subsequent famine,

where food resources are stolen,

where divides between richest and poorest widen

and children remain unfed.


The community of the Holy Trinity

of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place,

be over the nations

of consuming privilege

and those who have nothing —

barely the scraps.


The society of the Holy Trinity

of solid, liquid, gas

the three states of matter

be over the human family 

in all its variety

races, colors and kinds,

genders and life-paths.

May we learn to love one another.


The fellowship of the Holy Trinity

of left, right, center

be over us,

sorely divided —

tricked by media talking heads

who sow division,

suspicion and

fear.


The friendship of the Holy Trinity

of positive, negative, neutral

be over our minds

freeing us from compassion-less thinking —

blessing us with the expansive mind of Christ 

which leaves no one excluded,

un-loved.


The intimacy of the Holy Trinity

of morning, noon and night

be over this new day

in whatever comes my way —

delighting me,

testing me,

inviting me. 


The family of the Holy Trinity

of  red, blue and yellow

the primary colors for mixing,

be over our families in their complexity,

their variety,

their struggling.


The circle of the Holy Trinity

of red, blue and green,

the primary colors of light

be over the church

wherever it is threatened by darkness  —                        

from within,

from without,

where love has yet to triumph.



Thursday, June 9, 2022

Intercessions ~ Feast of the Holy Trinity


Holy Trinity Church ~ Antarctica

 
We ask for the strengthening of our families, / our parishes and communities,/ as we celebrate the inner relational life of God./ We pray for the people of Ukraine where life is fragmented,/ threatened and stressed./ For the children,/ the elderly,/ the wounded and those who are mourning the war dead./ May peace be restored./ We pray to the Lord.

On Pentecost Sunday,/ fifty people, including children/ were killed by terrorists during Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Nigeria./ Within the past weeks,/ important churches have been targeted and burned in Ukraine,/ monks have died in the shelling of  monasteries./ The devil is a spoiler./ May God intervene./ We pray to the Lord.

Erasmus,/ the 16th century Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian,/ wrote,/ "No man is wise at all times, or is without his blind side."/  May we know ourselves well./ Not only our sins,/ but our ignorance,/ mistakenness/ and vulnerability before media voices which sow confusion,/ fear,/ anger,/ suspicion./ We pray to the Lord.

Ours is a planet of delight, but also of suffering./ We pray for those who live with lift-threatening sickness,/ those who struggle with chronic pain,/ who are being treated for cancer and other persistent diseases,/ those undergoing surgery this week,/ those with no access to medical treatment./ We pray to the Lord. 

Love is the bond of unity within the Holy Trinity./ By Baptism,/ and living within the Trinity,/ we pray to love anyone who has wronged us/ or who we have wronged./ For anyone who actively dislikes us/ or who we dislike./ May we be freed of consuming negativity,/ complaint and enervating judgments of others./ We pray to the Lord. 

In the month of June,/ may we take pleasure in God's creation which pulses with life,/ taking care as we are able/ to protect the planet entrusted to us,/ a planet which is at once resilient and yet delicate and fragile./ We pray to the Lord.


Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Preparing for the Feast of the Holy Trinity

 



This coming Sunday, June 12, is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. There'll be a prayer for the Feast Day itself, but I'd like to bring forward the posts from some time ago which proposed to teach us about the Old Testament Icon of the Holy Trinity (seen here) painted by St. Andre Rublev. 

On the far right of this blog page you'll see a number of bullet points that link us to other collected posts that have been presented since Pauca Verba's start in March of 2013. The 5th bullet point reads simply, The Trinity Icon. Click on that and a number of other links open which reflect upon some aspect of the icon. You might be interested in exploring that a bit in anticipation of Sunday's Feast.




Sunday, June 5, 2022

Early Morning Prayer to the Virgin Mary


My brother's sunrise view near Buffalo, NY 

Truly blessed Lady,

   who bore,

   who nursed

 the dear One of Bethlehem.

Wonderful in your maternity,

Wonderful in your tenderness 

   for us still.

We greet you first in the morning,

   as the sky begins to brighten,

as the wood warbler starts to sing!

Fr. Stephen Morris



Thursday, June 2, 2022

Intercessions ~ Feast of Pentecost

Peony ~ Mary's Rose

Monday is the new feast of Mary,/ Mother of the Church./ She is the one who first says yes to Jesus and who perseveres in praise, faith and service./ May we imitate her in the life of the Church./ We pray to the Lord.

In the Eastern Christian church the Pentecost color is not red, but green./ The church is covered with green branches and grasses brought in to cover everything,/ even the floor./ May we green and grow in the Easter Mystery we have been celebrating for seven weeks/ built up in faith,/ hope and love./ We pray to the Lord.

A few days after the Uvalde massacre of 19 fourth graders and two teachers,/ there were an additional 9 domestic terror attacks in the nation./ Now only the biggest ones make headlines/ in this nation where there are more guns than people./ Is the problem the gun lobby?/ Is the problem a political, one?/ Is the problem big money?/ Or is that many people/ including those in leadership simply do not care?/ Teach us,/ heal us./ We pray to the Lord. 

In August, / Pope Francis will create 21 new cardinals./ They come/ not from the high profile nations and cities/ but places far flung./ One cardinal from India is a Dalit/ once referred to scurrilously as untouchable./ May we learn what it means to be a truly open-armed,/ open hearted church,/ where people feel at home ~ named,/ known and valued./ We pray to the Lord.

At the start of June we pray for those who will celebrate birthdays,/ anniversaries and other days of remembrance./ We pray for graduates,/ the safety of summer travelers and those in harms way during storms./ May the earth be blessed with the gift of rain where it is needed./ May we see appreciate water as a great gift not to be wasted./ We pray to the Lord.

Monday marks the 100th day of the invasion of Ukraine./ Pope Francis has said, the logic behind the invasion is diabolical./ Rape,/ theft,/ civilian murder,/ lies,/ vast and wonton destruction are the evils used to demoralize an entire population./ Once again,/ Ukraine is the Land of Blood./ We pray boldly for God to rise up./ We pray to the Lord.

The prayer we know from childhood calls upon the Holy Spirit to kindle the fire of love in human hearts/ to create and re-create us/ and to renew the face of the earth./ We ask for the healing of our world and of our own nation./ May we know God's spirit-victory over human ignorance, hatred and indifference./ We pray to the Lord.