Hearing Old Prayers Anew

Sometimes prayers we have used for years suddenly take on new meaning when our circumstances or we ourselves change. For example, every Thursday morning during the season of spring for several decades, I have read this prayer from Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim by Edward Hays:

"May my prayer and all the prayers, sacrifices, and deeds of compassion performed on this planet today be blended together as one and reach you through the mystery of your son Jesus, the cosmic Christ."

Now that we are living through a pandemic, a time when we are asked to separate ourselves from each other physically, it feels especially urgent and comforting to know that any prayers, sacrifices, and deeds of compassion we perform today are not performed in isolation but are linked to those of others through Christ. Yes, it matters if you are patient with your restless children or drop off a (disinfected) care package to an elderly neighbor or call someone who is lonely. When you do it for the least of these, you do it for Christ, who uses your act of kindness to create a living, breathing web of love and support.

People who lose their sight discover that their other senses are heightened. Now that we must restrict physical touch to safeguard the health and the very lives of ourselves and others, we will become more attuned to other ways of relating to each other—through our voices, through the music and poetry and visual art we create for each other, through the food and flowers we grow to sustain each other, and through our prayer intentions. As Gandhi said, love is the strongest force the world possesses; it certainly cannot be contained by the social distancing we must practice to contain a virus.

In Fr. Ed’s Friday morning prayer for the season of spring, he says, “More precious that gold or silver are the prayers of your children, my companion pilgrims on this planet earth.” Your prayers are always precious, but I am especially aware of their value now, and I thank you for offering them to strengthen your companion pilgrims in the body of Christ during these anxious and challenging times.