Blog by Sr. June Fitzgerald, OP[/caption]
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been having a hard time finding the words to pray.
This has happened before. It’s usually when the issues and circumstances before me are too overwhelming and confusing.
What to pray for when it seems as if all is lost – like in the case of the recent hurricanes or the indiscriminant shooting of innocent people attending a concert.
Why O God?
I turned to the Psalms and found many that expressed my concern, anguish, anger and faith in the love of God.
Here’s one:
Psalm 77
I cry aloud to You, O God,
to the Eternal Listener,
that I might be heard.
In the day of trouble I seek the Beloved;
in the night my hand is stretched out in prayer;
my soul yearns to be comforted.*
The phrase “my hand is stretched out in prayer;” reminds me of a prayer I wrote as a novice and hold in my heart at times like this . . .“with fingers of faith, I hold onto God’s hand in the dark.” It comforts me know that I can hold God’s hand and be steadied…to be comforted.
Yes, I know God’s hands are only tangible in the person of a friend, a sister, a stranger – like the woman who held the dying man’s hand in Las Vegas or the rescuer who held the hand of the girl until they were able to free her from the rubble of the school in Mexico.
Those are God’s hands.
Those are our hands.
Reach out.
Be the hands, heart and voice of our God who is ever beside us.
With fingers of faith, hold onto God’s hand in the dark.
Peace.
*from Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill, (2005, Continuum, New York, NY) 