A Prayer

O Lord, make my hands instruments of your love;

make my feet to walk in peace.

Even though I see that humans are being irresponsible

with what you have made--

with the earth and with each other--

turn my rage to love

and my eyes to You, God.

I can give you nothing but these feet and hands;

make their movements pleasing in Your sight.

What have we to work with, Lord, but this broken world?

You created everything in it,

but we are not good.

You delight in showing clemency, you are full of mercy,

yet we kill each other

and trample creation underfoot,

as if it were much less than a miracle.

Give me the patience to endure this world

and the love to overcome it.

Give me the courage to do justice, love kindness,

and walk humbly with You, O God.

Amen.

Food for Death

Food for death-

all of life is food for the grave.

Will I nourish the soil

that has borne my life?

Will I repay it well,

the earth of my grains and fruits

and forefathers?

Will I bear vine-ripened youth

and delicious communion?

For those who play in the glow

of the harvest sun,

coming together at a table lovingly laden

with the fruits of my flesh,

oh, I hope to join them there

and give them the joys of my toil

under the sun that tends the fields,

and watches over them by day.

Will I help make healthy

a generation that so earnestly

needs to till this soil,

to feel it in their fingers and in their bones?

For they will one day be food for earth,

and I hope they nourish well.