When losing hope, pray.

The angst of the world, especially beyond our borders, makes me weep and moan, losing hope. There is still the Pax Christi bumper sticker on my desk, though not on my car, that says:
GOD BLESS THE WHOLE WORLD--NO EXCEPTIONS!

Seeking some help, I found this prayer by Walter Brueggemann:

You are the God who creates and recreates,

who judges and delivers,

who calls by name and makes new.

This much we gladly confess in praise and thanksgiving.

This much we trust and affirm . . .

Only to ponder the chance that we are too glib,

that we say more than we mean,

that we say more

than we can in fact risk.

We make our gingerly confession in a world filled

with those who cynically acknowledge none but themselves. . .

and we are their fellow travellers

with those who in vulnerability have no chance

but prayer to you . . .

and we stand in solidarity with them.

Thus we ask, beyond our critical reservations,

that you be your powerful, active, sovereign self.

Give us eyes to see your wonders around us;

Give us hearts to live into your risky miracles;

Give us tongues to praise you beyond our doubt.

For it is to you, only you, that we turn on behalf of the world

that waits in its deathliness for your act of life. Amen.

Walter Brueggemann

February 20, 2001

Brueggemann, Walter. Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter

Brueggemann. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003. 124.