Prayer of Anguish and Lament – Christina Rowntree

Holy One,

The devastation in Mariupol appals us

We are mute with rage.

silence – 

 

Our tears fall, we lament an atrocity beyond comprehension.

We join our sisters, young mothers, and small children, in their anguish.

Slowly words form to express our anger.

silence – red rose petals are strewn on table

 

A hospital for women and children should be

a safe haven protecting the mystery of birth.

But the women in labour have been trapped in rubble,

Fathers trying to rescue their children, struggle

Hearts, hopes and bodies broken.

Silence – red rose petals dropped

 

Sophia Christ,

You would shelter your beloved ones in the Ukraine,

under humble wings like a mother hen,

the very old and the young, the newborn ones.

Bring aid and protection to those suffering,

dazed and confused by the unholy disaster.

silence – red rose petal dropped

 

Holy One, Sacred Three,

Let us not rage in anger much longer,

Impelled by anguish and distress, strengthen us to act,

Summon justice from all who watch from afar

None can pretend not to know, not to see.

Stir the nations to action, until Ukraine can be free.

silence – red rose petals dropped

 

Suffering Friend,

Your love and justice are for the poor, for the weak,

for those wounded and displaced by the aggressor,

Sorrowing beside the bereaved and bereft,

Your ways are ways of peace and compassion,

May we walk in your Way with hands and hearts open.

 

We light the Sophia Christ candle

 

Sophia Wisdom,

Today our hearts are rent by war’s destruction.

Our gaze turns home, in horror at the flood’s devastation.

We long for peace, and effective climate action.

In this terrible epoch of floods, pestilence and famine,

You hold close the homeless, you weep with the wounded,

You brood over Earth and her myriad creatures,

breathing sighs too deep for words.

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