I read this prayer, from Marta Valentín’s wonderful devotional book, A Long Time Blooming, as our gathering devotional at choir last night.  Marta is Minister at First Church Unitarian in Littleton, Massachusetts.  Her first settled ministry was at First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit.  She is also a published poet and a drummer.  She is bilingual and bicultural with a Puerto Rican heritage.

May her words be as powerful for you now as they were for me last night.

—David

 

Spirit of Truth and Justice
Hear us as we ask that you
hold the collective anxiety
that permeates this fear-filled situation.

This is a call to arms.

Arms that will hold broken hearts,
and elated hearts
arms that wrap themselves around
a body, beaten and disfigured
in truth and metaphorically…

Arms that provide a strength
neither giver nor receiver
knew they possessed…

Arms that hold up
the sky of misplaced authority
and righteousness
from crashing down upon heads
struggling to be held high
as each shred of dignity is yanked
from their tired, over-used,
under-appreciated bodies.

This is a call for committed arms
to continue leading heads
and hearts
to know the facts
but feel the truth,
a call to remember
that the freedom we’ve been given
to swing our arms as wide and open
to the sun as we like
has come on the backs of humans
others wish were invisible.

This is a call to arm
ourselves with the facts
but feel the truth
borne out of the power of our
Unitarian Universalist love
and the balance of justice.

(source: Marta I. Valentín)