Monday Morning Offering - 81

Coffee in the Morning by George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

After six days of watching what’s happening in Haiti,
I come to you so aware of everything I have,
so many things I take for granted,

I come to you, Lord, with my mind and heart,
my soul and imagination filled with images
of so many whose emptiness
I cannot fathom or imagine,
so deep does it run…

It is not fair, Lord,
it is not right and it is not just
that I and many others
have so much more than we need
while so many more
live whole lives wanting
for clean water, food, shelter and medicine…

I think of when you spoke, Lord,
of the sheep and the goats
and how you call us to see
and how we so often fail to see you
in the faces, the cries, the tragedy
of our brothers and sisters everywhere…

It’s not enough, Lord, that this past week
I have offered a gift to those in Haiti -
it’s not enough…

It’s not enough, Lord, that in this past week
I have offered my compassion
for brothers and sisters living a suffering
that has been their heritage…

It’s not enough, Lord, that in this past week
I have allowed my focus and attention
to drift from my own needs and worries
to the pain and devastation of others…

It’s not enough, Lord, that in this past week
I have prayed not only for myself and my loved ones
but for sisters and brothers
whose names are unknown to me,
brothers and sisters whose very being,
whose pain and loss, summon me
to a personal accountability
to work for the peace
that only justice can harvest…

I offer you this morning, Lord, my desire
-or at least my desire to have the desire-
to care for the poor more than I care for myself;
to care for the needs of those I don’t know
at least as much as I care for those I love
and know by name;
to attend every day, in some way,
as I have every day this past week
to the cry of the poor...

I offer you, Lord, my hope
that you will shake the earth beneath my comfort;
that you will quake and wake me
from my carelessness, my selfishness;
that you will break down and shatter
the false and empty structures
upon which I depend for my security…

I offer you my hope
that I might love you, my God,
as my sisters and brothers in Haiti love you:
that I might love you above all,
above everyone,
above everything…

I offer you my hope, Lord,
that with genuine faith I might pray
that my heart is restless until it rests in you…

Help me, Lord, to see and respond
to the needs, the wants
of all whose paths cross mine today:
help me to see that every path I walk is endless
and that you wait at every crossroad
to meet me in my brothers and sisters…

Free me to let go the things, the possessions,
the needing, the wanting that clogs my heart
and help me to be generous in sharing what I have
with those who have so much less…

I offer you this prayer and hope
this morning, Lord,
and every day this week…

Amen.