Profiles in Catholicism

Prayers

 

A prayer for people with disabilities :

 

« Freezing or Thawing »

 

Entering into time, Lord, you came among us to heal, to cure, to

Transform, to inspire in us the belief that you are the Son of God

And that the power of your word is a power which enters the heart

To answer our deepest questions: questions which address who we

Are and who you, through Mary, came to reveal about yourself.

 

So we discover through Mary’s dialogue with the angel Gabriel that

You, Lord, are the Son of the Most High and that the Holy Spirit has

The power to ‘overshadow’ her and bring you to exist in the flesh;

And, therefore, because of this dialogue we, too, are invited to draw

Near to the Blessed Trinity and to bring all our heart’s painful love.

 

And thus, Lord, we bring all those who we suffer with, whether we

Know them personally or not, but especially if they are in our

Family, among our neighbours, on the street, in a doorway, sleeping

Under a tree, near a library, in a tent on the side of the street, or

Lying, almost unrecognizably in the rubbish, hidden in dirty greys.

 

But there are others, Lord, whom you know are out of sight but not

Beyond your penetrating gaze, seeing right through the closed freezers,

at temperatures where, ordinarily, no one lives, yet live the

Smallest, frozen unborn, barely in existence but exist they do as        

“to be” is irrevocable and who will cry out for their right to grow?

 

While, then, these that are frozen are fortunate in comparison to those

Who have been “deleted”, “discarded”, “experimented upon”, they

Are many and, frequently, even if they are thawed, they may never

Survive and find a maternal home or, if they do, they may fail in the

Reviving of life, in “restarting”, and die a thawed, withering death.

 

How many of us, Lord, while not exactly the frozen human embryos,

Buried alive in freezing nitrogen, are yet frozen out of society in so

Many different ways, as if there are those who go about with ice-cold

Capabilities, shooting darts of addiction to drugs, alcohol, and

Pictures, preying on the prayerless, wordless, dying bodies of people?

When you came, Lord, it was your word, your touch, your company,

Which touched so many and, even if we deserted you, yet you came

To save, to stay among us, and to forgive; and, having risen and

Ascended from us, yet you have stayed, silently, in our Churches,

Being there, beckoning us to come to the warmth of your presence.

 

It is true, Lord, that we live in a world of contradictions where there

Are immense, technological aids for those whose thoughts are within

Being able to speak through a machine, or write, or in some way

Convey what they are thinking through the immeasurable help of

What changes actions, or eye movements, into words out of silence.

 

But it is also true, Lord, that there is an immense wastage of human

Life, like a slope of human slippage, sliding into the drain an

Unknown, almost inestimable amount of human remains, but not just

The remains of adults – but the remains of culled, cut, and incredibly

Innocent human life, known in all his or her splendor only by you.

 

Only you, Lord, can call upon the heart of each one of us to come to

The invisible fire of your Eucharistic presence to be soaked in the

Mystery of a love that always seeks to take us from where we are to

Who you are, that we may be warmed through and, while slowly,

Surely, you thaw and make a warmer, melting love, that loves to love.

 

And so we come, full rounded now, not just remembering that you

Came and did what you have done, however much of it was unwritten

And passed down, perhaps passing out of memory and dying with the

People whose lives were changed, forever now, being with you in

Eternity, where now you gather all who have passed into your family.

 

And so, Lord, let us come into your unchanging company, leaving no

One, neglecting no one, overlooking no one, except those who

Wilfully choose to stay cold, heart unburnt, un-melted, frighteningly

Unwilling to listen: the voluntarily frozen whose lives are a betrayal

Of being human and whose hearts are out of reach of a touching love.

 

by Francis Etheredge Catholic married layman, father of 11, 3 of whom are in heaven, and an author: https://enroutebooksandmedia.com/francisetheredge/