Forgotten Images
Dear
God of Us All,
They have forgotten you.
They have twisted your images
as midwife, as pregnant being, as nursing mother, and called you
"he" with no room for she.
They thought ignoring you
would make you disappear.
They claim nexus to a male god
without consort or equal.
They desire dominance,
justified by a god up there.
They do not understand your
Oneness.
Dear God of Us All,
We have forgotten you, too.
We have accepted invisibility,
yours and ours, without a fight.
We mistook our servanthood for
slavery.
We forgot ourselves.
We fear your offer of freedom.
Dear God of Us All,
Help us to know that you Are
and always Will Be.
Help us to receive your
nurturing and strength.
Help us to realize that
embracing life can never be enslaving.
Help us to never, ever, forget
you again!
--Lois H. Grace Stovall
Charlotte, North Carolina
A Trying Day
O
God,
This has been a trying day;
a day filled with confusion
and doubt
in the midst of love and care.
There's such a thin line, dear
God,
between being assertive and
being selfish
and I've not yet learned to
walk that line.
Help me to keep my balance,
God,
and please pick me up when I
fall.
O God, we're so lucky here.
May we not ignore the curses
and not dismiss the blessings.
Thank you for friends who love
us enough
to challenge us to look inside
even as we grow
and reach out to you.
Amen.
(Both of the above prayers are from Roller, 1986.)
In the Night
In
the night
when
our world dissolves in tears
we
feel
abandoned.
Nobody
knows
and
nobody understands
and
nobody feels
our
pain.
Even
the ones who care
don't
care
the
way
we
do.
In
that moment
when
there is no sound
and
there is no sight,
nothing
but silent unrelenting night ...
in
that moment
comes
the choice
of
Death or Life:
We
can look down into our own Self
or
we can look up to God,
the
only Star in out unlit skies.
(Weems, 1991, 25)