Prayers of the People, C1A

​You sent your son to live among your people
wearing skin,
knowing well the kind of hell that dwells
without, within.
You knew that fear and greed and jealousy
would drive him -- like others -- to live as refugee
in a country not his own,
yet there you provided security
among the foreign humanity
until such time as peace meant he and his earthly family
could return home.

Today your children cry from cages,
and their parents from prison cells,
for rescue from the violence that threatens to destroy.
Like Joseph, they are running
from people who are gunning
to take into slavery --
or murder -- their helpless girls and boys.
Hear our prayers for mercy, God!
Hear the cries of despair!
Open wide your arms of love
that grace dispels all fear.

Across the earth, grief is birthed that cannot
be consoled
as mothers wail and fathers rail against systems
out of control.
For comfort and compassion,
for safety and for peace,
for violence to end
and for the innocent to be released,
hear our fervent prayers, O God,
and change our stony hearts
that Love may make its home here
and a fresh new era start.