Friends,
I was led to share with you a prayer that was shared with me while I attended Harvard Divinity School. The prayer is written by the great American peace activist and prisoner of conscience Elizabeth McAlister.
Season of winter, be our teacher. Season of harvested fields and food stored up, teach us to know when enough is enough. Replace our restless striving for more and more with a spirit of deep gratitude and engaged compassion for those with empty eyes and parched hopes.
Season of winter, be our teacher. Season of darkness, death and dying, teach us to hear the death that rattles around us, to hear the cries of a world dying at our own hands – sisters and brother and the earth itself devoured by our greed and violence. May we know that it is only through hearing and heeding that we will become fully human.
And when our spirits wither, give us the hope of this season, when dark nights slowly yield to the light’s ineluctable strength. When our spirits falter, give us the love this season, when birth erupts from the heart of death.
And when we taste the ashes of sorrow and forget the bread of life, give us the faith of this season to believe that it all has meaning, that nothing – nothing – is lost.
When we are tempted to look away from our sisters and brothers in need, give us the deep conviction of our communion with all life so we never drift from this table of fellowship and starve in the desert of selfishness. Let us partake of this meal in a spirit of unity. In a world where food is a weapon, let us take from this table the bread of peace.
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