Scripps Sunday #77

holding you and your community there close, Anna.... 💓

for this grief-stricken day

God, we are heartbroken in the face of

so much grief.

Comfort us in our sorrow.

Blessed are we who allow ourselves to feel it—

the impossibility

of what was possible a second ago—

the light decision, the casual stroll,

the easy exchange and ordinary duty,

a decent choice or a banal one,

the sweep of hours on a day that was like any other,

until it wasn’t.

This is the place where nothing makes sense.

This is the place where tears flow in earnest now.

Blessed are we who allow our hearts to break,

for it will take some time

for brittle unreality to release us from its grip,

for the long and slow dissolve

until we fully see

what never should have been.

Blessed are we who ask you, God,

that grief find its way to move among us

and be felt together, that comfort may flow

in bonds of affection

unbroken by this fresh tragedy.

Though grief and tragedy and pain

try to convince us otherwise,

remind us that we are not alone.

God, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Spirit, have mercy.

Amen.

-Kate Bowler

Scripps Sundays