Prayers

 

A prayer for Evangelists

 

“Go out into the whole world”

 

Oh Lord of wonders and wonderous Lord of all,

 

Easter came in the night with a candle lit from a fire,

Bearing the hope of the resurrection in the dead night,

Entrapped as we are in sin and fear, hopelessly tight.

 

You rose from a terrible death, bursting from the tomb,

Appearing to those with whom you walked and talked

And told them: “Go out into the whole world” and tell

Your witness of the great events of deliverance and life!

 

Lord, I dressed smartly, and my neighbour asked why?

Because it is Easter! And we celebrate Easter for a week!

And then we continue the feast until Pentecost brings the

Celebration of the mission-presence of the Holy Spirit.

 

Lord, I said “good morning” to many people I did not know,

Who would have otherwise passed silently, without the smile

 

That came between us, others neither speaking

 

Nor looking but who, strapped in by fears, went on without a

Word, gesture, or pause, silencing further attempts to speak.

 

But not as we were, as now I pray for the locked-in-silenced.

 

Lord, we had been away with you on a long weekend and, on

Return, I dared to say “God is good and loves you” at the bus

Stop and a man answered, how unusual to hear God spoken of.

 

There are those, Lord, who wrote about you for the rest of us:

They are called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and there are

Those who left everyone and everything, and went to meet you

In the desert, in monasteries and convents, and there are those,

Men and women, who sailed across the world, witnessing with

Their lives, their health and their deaths, that there is a love that

Transfigures everyday actions into acts of eternal life and love!

 

But, Lord, just as your active presence is present in the beginning

Of each one of us, so you accompany us throughout our lives, not

Neglecting to send us messengers of your love as visibly here as

You are invisibly there, too, calling us to act out of the truth-in-love.

 

Oh Lord, we do not announce you alone, as alone we are not clothed

In the life of those from whom we have been formed and through

whom we are called to travel as far as the stars and as near as those

Next to us, on the street, amidst the crowd, at the end of a letter or

Message in the internet bubbles that float through the known world

Visiting all who will visit it and inviting them to humility and prayer

Remembering that God was there at our beginning as

He will be at Our end, as He has been through our time through now to evermore.

 

Oh Mary, who alone expresses the inexpressible presence of the

Indwelling mystery of the divine dwelling that manifests itself as

An outward glowing of coal from the very fire of God, ever bright

With the light and warmth of His Being, but being forever blessed

From the roots of your existence, showing forth the radiance of all

 

Relationships rooted in you and flowering in your Church and in

All those tending to you, near and far, young and old, of every race and colour who, listening to the voice among the voices of the earth,

Hear and say, here I am Lord, I come to do your will in loving truth.

 

So let us cry out in our hearts, speaking at the garden fence, the bus

Stop, or by the media mediated to many who we will never meet, that there is time to meet the lover of all mankind and His forever

by Francis Etheredge Catholic married layman, father of 11, 3 of whom are in heaven, and an author.