All this day O Lord, let me touch as many lives as possible for thee; and every life I touch do thou by thy spirit quicken, whether through the word I speak, the prayer I breathe, or the life I live. Amen
(A Prayer of Mary Sumner)
God of all generations,
all mothers and all fathers, all
children and all women who
care or cannot from grief care;
A pause, a silence; candles
all homes in peace, all homes in war,
all families who fall under
the rod of poverty or beneath
the oppressor’s stubborn heel;
A pause, a silence; candles lit
for husbands who love wives and for
husbands who do not love, for
wives who search for love and do not
find it in their storehouses:
A pause, a silence.
Hear our prayer.
For children who grow strong within
the arms of love and grace surrounding;
orphans with their smoldering wicks
and all bruised and broken reeds:
Spirit of the living God,
Hear our prayer.
For homes with scars and festering
tissue where the homes are scarred,
and homes with war zones, blackout drapes:
God of all our generations:
God of mercy,
Hear our prayer.
Spirit of the living God,
we call, all mothers, children to
you of all our generations.
God have mercy.
Hear our prayer.
The Consolations of Writing 