Prayers from the Stranger for the Stranger to the Stranger
O God, remind us that we are part of a whole, part of the land or our ancestry and your future, that we are both bordered people and unbordered, national and trans-national, wound and unwound people. Let us be citizens of a globe, where love and respect have just borders. Amen.
We pray to the Spirit and the Forces that created the globe. No matter whether our tradition began with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Sara, or Ishmael and Hagar, or the immigrants standing at the manger, or in a manifestation as deep as the heart’s longing for understanding, still, hear our prayer for the displaced and misplaced. We are each hosts and guests, strangers and friends, on an increasingly small globe that has its source in you. Bind us together in the arts of mutual welcome and understanding. Amen.
Let us get by through the kindness of strangers, and help us make sure we know who the stranger really is. Teach us to think globally from the safety of our own back yard – so that we may learn to be truly safe. Amen
The Walking ATM, a Meditation on an Immigrant
He worked easy 50 hours for the $300 in his pocket.
On his way home, on Friday night,
Tired but not exhausted,
The thieves chanted “Juanie, Juanie, Juanie,”
And then robbed him as if they had a right to his money.
And his name.
He had no cop, no wife, no country to call.
His children were waiting at the Western Union in Chiapas.
He trudged to the place he calls home, now exhausted
And insulted.
My country is the thief.
I am a part of the rip off.
First we steal dignity and them we take the money.
His name was Juan.
A Litany to Use in Public Prayer
Great Wholeness and Greater Spirit, you whom no nation nor faith dare fully name or claim, prepare us for the long haul. Grant the whole globe the arts of mutual welcome. Let me hear my voice complain every time I hear hate in speech. Give sanctuary a new name. Let there be no borders on love. And guarantee children a future filled with bouncing balls on a joyous globe. Amen.
White mans guilt?
Oh Lord remember the results of massive illegal movement of people – remember – how these people that cry for mercy – never gave any too the people they first mass illegal moved too – the so called south America’s – Now their moving North again – let us not forget the genocides that take place from these massive illegal so call immigration… remember LORD MY GOD … Let Justice finally rein – see through these fake cries of Justice – and bring about true Justice…
Genocide?