Fire & Holy Places Prayer

A prayer for Good Friday

​Life-Giver of all that is and ever has been,
who meets us in our grief:
We arrive here at the end of the week,
weary, and with fires and holy places
on our minds and hearts:
the Notre Dame Cathedral,
Black churches in Louisiana,
Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque,
and forest cathedrals.
So much destruction, despair,
loss, death, and ashes.
On this Good Friday we reflect
on death and despair,
grief and loss,
sorrow laid bare like a
landscape scorched of its trees
or a community of its spiritual centre.
We feel the emptiness
in our bones, our hearts
reach across time and space
to those most closely
touched by the flames.
Spirit of Life, we know
that you grieve too. Hear
our cries, as we cry
for the brokenness in
our world and our own ability
to inflict wounds on others
and on the earth.
May our Wounded Healer
offer comfort and company as
we wait in stillness and silence
for hope to be born again
from the ashes.
Amen.

Wendy Janzen, 2019
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