Lent, Days 3 and 4

Our Father whose creative Will
Asked Being for us all
Confirm it that Thy Primal Love
May weave in us the freedom of
The actually deficient on
The justly actual.

Though written by Thy children with
A smudged and crooked line
The Word is ever legible
Thy Meaning unequivocal
And for Thy Goodness even sin
Is valid as a sign.

Inflict Thy promises with each
Occasion of distress
That from our incoherence we
May learn to put our trust in Thee
And brutal fact persuade us to
Adventure Art and Peace.

-W.H. Auden, from For the Time Being


O God, we pray this day:
for all who have a song they cannot sing;
for all who have a burden they cannot bear;
for all who live in chains they cannot break.
for all who wander homeless and cannot return;
for those who are sick and for those who tend them;
for those who wait for loved ones and wait in vain.
for those who live in hunger
and for those who will not share their bread,
for those who are misunderstood
and for those who misunderstand;
for those who are captive and for those who are captors,
for those whose words of love are locked within their hearts
and for those who yearn to hear those words.

Have mercy on these, O God.
Have mercy on us all.

- Ann Weems