Profiles in Catholicism
- Jul 30
- 4 min read

Jesuit Refugee Service

Updated: Aug 6

Prayers

A Prayer for the Current, Past and Volunteer Members of the Jesuit Relief Service

“Branching Ever-New”

Lord, you planted the Tree of Life from the beginning, or was it

Transplanted from the soil of eternity, taking temporal root and

First flourishing in the Garden of Eden, persisting through the Corruption that came with sin – but not wholly so and the infection,Like a black spot that appears on the leaves of roses is pulled off but

Then begins again, rising with the sap and although the sap is drawn

Wholesome, yet the tendency to die is always in need of new life.

Oh Lord, then you watered the Tree of Life with your unfolding Being, in time,

building on the history of salvation, scrapping Nothing and

drawing on everything, from the earth to every kind

Of good culture which had arisen through your ever moving and

Mothering gift of your Holy Spirit, transforming your Passion into

An everlasting offering of undying love, ever watering afresh from

The ground soaked from the falling of your blood, water, and work.

Dear Lord, even as you died and rose, so the Tree of Life wilts,

Withers, needs pruning, strips down as if dying but then with theEver-greening of new leaves, councils, reforms and small, unusualGrowths, almost estranged from the trunk,turn out to be the life-Saving branching-out in new directions,brightening the wintering

Look, burst alight with welcomed developments of the stable wise,

Itinerant travelers, telling of the Gospel of Love from poor to all.

Oh Lord, how many and how unusual are your golden, gilded gifts,

Like the mosaics that adorn the sky-ceilings of cathedrals, decorate

The sanctuary, glisten with design and skill, taking up all that art

And craft can offer back to God, drawing on what has been given

From the beginning and ever mixed afresh with new talents and

Inspirations from multi-cultural roots throughout the world, moving

As people move, bringing and over spilling with fresh adornments.

How great, Lord, is the mysterious flowering of the Tree of Life,

so Weak and yet so strong, so wretched and so noble, as the impulse of Life,Like a melody running through the root and trunk, limbs and Leaves, like the many-eyes of the heart of God seeing through allThe human misery, the cut and dirt of dreadful wounds of fleeing

Peoples, children dragging what they can, trailing goods, carts and

Few bundles of possessions that may yet be left and plot their path.

Oh Lord, how many are the ways your outreach stretches through

The land, like a network, drawing from so many sources, sustained

By so many small gifts but, like drop of water, each with a grain of Soil,

adding grain to grain, drop to drop and stretching to bursting as

The hand of help of multiplies, hand to hand, so many people

Holding hands, to pass what can be passed, touching each as it goes

And embracing, as only love can, the eye and heart of the wrecked.

I beg you Lord, to take these branches, transplant them further, let Them grow from the great tree, take shape and bloom, bear great

Burdens and be taken up, even as broken, on the fire of love’s rising,

Witnessing beyond themselves to the rush of need-driven help asPeople sail, swim, are swamped by their sufferings and the tragicUnscrupulous stealing of wealth, only to die, cheated, as the boats

Sink and safety, long lost, left behind by the desperate to land safe.

Oh God, who see all, love all, seek to save all, what can we do but Act and water, cut and plant, and beg around the world to cry out,

Wail, trumpet, announce, shout and sing the prayer that has to pierce

The human heart through and through to the heart of Christ,

His Mother and St. Joseph, imploring upon us all that generosity that

Sews heart to heart, showing forth the abundant mercy of God that

Alone answers all human needs, now and to everlasting eternal life.

by Frances Etheredge Catholic married layman, father of 11, 3 of whom are in heaven, and an author. of: “The Word in Your Heart: Mary, Youth, and Mental Health”:

Jesuit Refugee Service Members and Former Members Interviews