Prayer of the Week

. . . You invite us to be wholeness,
to be co-creators along Love's way.
You hear the cries of the afflicted,
and answer their prayer.

. . . Let all nations declare the beauty
of your Holy Names
and gather together in peace
to honor the Creator of All.

– Excerpted from Psalm 102
as translated by Nan C. Merrill
in Psalms for Praying:
An Invitation to Wholeness

The words of Psalm 102 have been in my heart lately as, once again, I find myself feeling despondent and overwhelmed by the terrible acts of violence we're witnessing in our world. In particular, I'm mindful this evening of the recent massacre of 49 Muslims worshipers by a white supremacist at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Desiring to respond in a prayerful and meaningful way to this and other situations of violence, upheaval, and injustice in the world, I found myself drawn to the Prayer Tree (above and right), where I spent time earlier today in quiet reflection and prayer.

Then later, back at my home, I revisited "Unfolding at Every Moment," one of the "prayers of questioning" in William Cleary's book Prayers to An Evolutionary God. It's a prayer I've shared previously at The Wild Reed. I share it again this evening, trusting that in doing so I am, in the words of Buffy Sainte-Marie, "planting good seeds" – thoughts, words, and/or actions grounded in hope, compassion, and openness to the transforming love of the Sacred Presence within and beyond all things. Furthermore, I trust that my sharing of this particular "good seed" will, in some mysterious way, help move humanity to embody the transformative qualities of hope, compassion and openness to the Sacred.

Holy Spirit of Evolution,
creator of the cosmos and its wonders,
how shall we deal with the insidious evil
– epidemic in world cultures and societies –
of human egotism,
cruel in its delusional ignorance
and destructive of human life and its environments?

Egotism produces war, crime, cruelty,
disappointment, isolation,
impoverishment, ignorance, illusion:
we are all too familiar with these.

In the end, along with all spiritualities of the world,
we must trust you, Silent Mystery,
and your evolutionary plan for us
unfolding at every moment.

We will come together in our pain,
to pool our wisdom and our energies of hope,
convinced that in the end, the very end,
all shall somehow be well.

May it be so.

I'll close by sharing William Cleary's commentary on his prayer "Unfolding at Every Moment."

Where evil comes from – with all its resulting failure and heartbreak – is not something we can understand. Some of it arises from human choice, some comes from the natural evolutionary way of things, but most seems beyond human comprehension. Our hearts cry out for reasons; we seldom find them. Some kind of surrender is called for in every spirituality. Theologian Diarmuid O'Murchú speaks of "God's mysterious but wise plan." There is certainly solid evidence of order beneath whatever chaos we may encounter. "God is subtle but not malicious," in Albert Einstein's memorable phrase. However, string theory and quantum mechanics now postulate a pervasive uncertainty beneath any orderliness. There seems to be mystery at every level of reality.

Ultimately, we have no choice but to trust in the world around us, in the marvelous processes of nature that we observe daily, in the forces of healing at work in our bodies and in the earth's apparent ability to govern itself and even heal its wounds, in the ingenuity and heroism of our own human companions. Mystics by and large have been optimists. They lead the way.

Related Off-site Links:
White Supremacist Kills 49 Muslim Worshipers in New Zealand as Islamophobic Hate Crimes Rise Globally – Democracy Now! (March 15, 2019).
Vowing Gun Reforms and Calling for "Love for All Muslim Communities," New Zealand Prime Minister Praised for Leadership After Mosque Attacks – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, March 16, 2019).
Christchurch Mosque Shooting: The Faces of the Victims – The New Zealand Herald (March 16, 2019).
“Hello, Brother”: Muslim Worshiper's “Last Words” to Gunman – Aljazeera News (March 15, 2019).
It’s Time to Confront the Threat of Right-Wing Terrorism – John Cassidy (The New Yorker, March 15, 2019).
Don’t Just Condemn the New Zealand Attacks — Politicians and Pundits Must Stop Their Anti-Muslim Rhetoric – Mehdi Hasan (The Intercept, March 15, 2019).

UPDATE: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Response to Christchurch Has Put Other Leaders to Shame – But Not For Its Compassion Alone – Robert Fisk (The Independent, March 21, 2019).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• President Trump, “We Hold You Responsible”
• Discerning and Embodying Sacred Presence in Times of Violence and Strife
• Called to the Field of Compassion
• Thoughts on Prayer in a “Summer of Strife”
• Prayer and the Experience of God in an Ever-Unfolding Universe
• Questioning God's Benevolence in the Face of Tragedy
• In the Wake of the Paris Attacks, Saying “No” to War, Racism and Islamophobia
• "It Is Not Paris We Should Pray For. It Is the World"
• Prayer of the Week – June 19, 2016

Images 1 and 2: Michael J. Bayly.
Image 3: Artist unknown.