Prayer Offered for January 25, 2018

If we utter the word mercy,

Standing, each of us, by an open window

Anywhere we are in the world,

Then the word mercy will carry on the soundwaves

Onwards and unceasing,

Through the air of the wounded world.

And maybe, when it takes flight

Into deed and kindness, justice and effort,

It will effect a healing, a hope and a blessing.

It may call the homeless home,

It may coax to hope the betrayed and broken,

It may ease the burdened earth.

Listen for it….

Listen for its neighborly dialects and global idiom.

Imagine those who, like you, are saying it aloud,

And those who need to hear it, today….

One word, one deed of justice, one kind effort at a time.

 ^{(“Mercy” by Mary Wickham, RSM.)}

Gracious God, give us the courage to say and be mercy today.—AMEN.