Recalling all our ancient hurts
We bind their wounds with love.
We bring our enemies to mind
And bind their wounds with love.
We the many all belong
To life’s ever-changing song.
We are part of life’s great ocean
Finding rest within its motion.
At each journey’s ending point
There exists forgiveness space
Which invites us to recall
Love’s transforming power and grace.
When we feel all weighed down with guilt *
And find forgiveness out of reach
We take your hand, O tender Christ,
And walk with you along life’s beach.
Not every day shall Earth’s bright rainbow colors
Arch over Earth’s clear sparkling, sparkling skies;
Not every day shall rainbows light our vision
But every day heart’s rainbows can be made.
Thank you, thank you, thank you God
For the gift, the gift of life.
Thank you, thank you, thank you God
For the peace beyond all strife.
Spirit within us, Spirit we call Holy,
With us, not of us, God’s own self with ours.
Presence of power, Spirit to spirit given,
This be our prayer now:
Through us your will be done.
Most noble of creatures on Earth are we
Yet gifted with power to both hurt and kill.
Are money and things our most sought for goal?
Or Earth and its life what transforms our will?
Holy Spirit as you speak
To both challenge and console
Every church and all the world
To empower and to make whole
“The meek shall inherit the Earth” said Christ
But what could this mean for the people today?
While corp’rates and rich folk gain more and more land
The poor live in slums where they’re still forced to stay.
Repaying force with counter-force,
Can this deliver peace?
Revenge for death, revenge for loss
Is this how wars will cease?
When the picture haunts my mind
Of a starving child who dies,
When my silence is disturbed
By the mother’s plaintive cries
How dear God shall I respond
To the tears that flood my eyes?
Here is bread and here is wine,
Food and drink we savor with delight;
Now upon this altar blessed,
Moving us beyond our taste and sight.
Aid will never save the world
Without changes in our lives.
Systems which embrace us all
Foster wealth’s destructive drives.
My desire for you, my friend,
Is the same as for myself
To be freed from gross desire
For more things or for more wealth
Through embracing sharing ways
That can nurture inner health.
Our hands, O God, are stained with blood
Which comes from family trees
Or flows from nations and the gods
They seek with fire to please.
Forgiveness is our most precious gift,
The most Christ-like blessing we can share.
This Earth is full of beauty
For those with open eyes;
This world is full of wonder
Which makes the pilgrim wise.
