Interfaith Day of Prayer – Prayer from Allan Boesak

Oh God of endless grace, refuge of steadfast, boundless love, thank you that we are among the living today.

 

In our bewilderment, helplessness and confusion, hear us.

 

Death and destruction surround us in ways we have not ever imagined, cannot follow, cannot fully understand, and have no power to overcome.

 

It is through your mercies that we are not consumed, because your compassions never fail.

 

We are afraid of what we hear, yet like moths drawn to a deadly flame we turn daily to news that drowns us in fear and hopelessness.

 

There is no comfort or safety in numbers now; it is in solitude that a way to life now lies.

 

Help us not to resent our isolation, but to embrace the stillness, so we can hear your voice.

 

Speak to us now of your mercies that are new every morning

Assure us once again that our lives are precious in your sight.

Help us overcome our many fears, for you are our light and our salvation.

 

Like Jesus in the wilderness,

help us to discern and resist the temptations that in our anxiousness we call survival skills:

of selfishness and mindless self-preservation that make us instant hoarders of what all must share;

of desires to in our panic claim you for ourselves as if you are not the God of all;

of securing our own security even at the cost of that of others.

 

Teach us to pray for others, especially those who are our first defenders now.

 

Help us to keep the love for your other children in our eyes for love’s own sake, even as we have to hide half our face behind the mask we wear for safety’s sake.

 

Let our enforced isolation never become a substitute for lasting solidarity.

 

We have to keep our distance. Do not be distant from us.

 

Help us hear the breathing of your Holy Spirit as she whispers to us of a new tomorrow.

 

Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak

Dutch Reformed Church cleric, Cape Town, South Africa; author, public theologian, politician, anti-apartheid activist, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Laureate.