Lamb of Atonement, by Francisco de Zurbarán (Wikimedia Commons)

Approx. read time: 1:50 min.

I awaken at 4:30 a.m., an hour too early to rise.
But here I am, awake.

I look up through darkness to a ceiling I cannot see.

Lamb of God, I begin to pray …
Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world …

The darkness seems
a metaphor for the times.

Lamb of God, I pray again.

I struggle for better, truer words,
words that get to the heart of a
yet unspoken plea.

Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world,
Turn us, turn us,
toward the many forms of
anguish hidden in plain sight.

Turn us toward our inattention,
our pointless distractions,
our pretending to just not see.

Turn us toward our walls,
to face our defenses, our twisted
explanations why facing darkness
is just so hard, and frankly,
so inconvenient.

Turn us toward horizons
too dark to see,
as night lingers and
morning ponders the
risks of revelation.

I breathe again, deeply, slowly,
with fierce attention.

Lamb of God, I pray now,
you take away the sin of the world:
Guide us through the naked realities
of poverty, life in the shadows,
mean-spirited policy, structures
of greed and exclusion, which
grind down the soul of
shivering humanity.

Guide us toward ways
to fearlessly flip the narrative,
as you flipped the tables of idolatry
in the temple courtyard.

Guide us toward the Light
of truth, of justice and mercy,
generosity and joy,
toward holy possibility.

Guide us toward courageous
witness, fearless action, and a
fierce inescapable yearning
for what God yearns for,
on Earth, now, as in Heaven.

Again I breathe, pause,
exhale, as more words arise.

Lamb of God, I pray,
you take away the sin of the world:
Grant us restless hearts that will
settle for nothing short of
the arrival of God’s beautiful
vision of how life is meant to be.

Grant us the attitude that
always was yours, of servant-hearted
humility, of outpouring of self,
not counting the cost,
in service to Love.

Grant us a will toward justice,
right action, tenderness,
compassion, and
peace.

Now, now, with heart composed,
I feel ready to rise, and
awake the dawn.

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Be well. Live in peace. Love one another.