Prayer & Praise

We know about your presence

that fills the world,

that occupies our life,

that makes our life in the world true and good.

We notice your powerful transformative presence

in word and

in sacrament,

in food and in water,

in gestures of mercy

and practices of justice,

in gentle neighbors

and daring gratitude.

We count so on your presence

and then plunge – without intending – into your absence.

We find ourselves alone, abandoned, without resources

remembering your goodness,

hoping your future,

but mired in anxiety and threat and risk beyond our coping.

In your absence we bid your presence,

come again,

come soon,

come here.

Come to every garden become a jungle

Come to every community become joyless

sad and numb.

We acknowledge your dreadful absence and insist on your presence.

Come again, come soon. Come here.

Walter Brueggemann