PRAYING WITH KNOTS AND LOOSE ENDS

Almost too much is happening in the world right now for human beings to process.

That said, when I watch what's happening in America today, I see (in the news) the results unfolding of almost half a voting country "groomed" by Donald Trump:  I see coercion and force being used to threaten Canada, other countries, and the U.S. itself.  How can anyone now doubt the women and men who accused Donald Trump of sexual, financial, and other abuses?  How can I doubt my temptation to judge half of American voters? 

Breathe.

I'm trying to pray tonight but it feels like just so many words-- too many knots and loose ends, if that makes sense???  Come Holy Spirit-- pray in me-- past, present, future, pray in the world.

Next.

I'm flipping through Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation-- I open to a page with an old note written in the margin that says, "turn this paragraph into a prayer." 

So I do. [Sticking pretty close to Merton's words] I pray:

Lord:  Empty my faculties of their frustration and tension toward created things, collect them into peace and interior silence in me, reach into the darkness where you are present to my (and the world's) deepest hunger, anxiety, depression, anger and fear.  Create in me a courageous desire and responsibility to be free of the last obstacles and attachments still standing between me and the emptiness capable of being filled with God"  Amen (264-265).

Deep breath.

In the morning I wake reaching in the dark for my pen and journal to write the following down:

Listen beyond the political noise, do not lose hope!

Turn knots into loose ends, and loose ends into prayers.

Trust music that (for you) sends fear packing.

Trust that good will conquer evil every time--

Trust when nothing makes sense, the sun always rises.

In the Morning, song by John Holt: Bing Videos

Cb
Amen
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