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| Photo: Christian Science Monitor |
In November, as Thanksgiving approaches, many faith communities will be conducting food drives and preparing baskets to help those in need celebrate their holiday dinners.
Alden Solovy at ToBendLight offers us a prayer drawing us beyond our immediate concern for the hungry to the problem of hunger around the globe. I'm especially grateful for Alden's attention to those among us who work diligently, year 'round, on behalf of the hungry poor.
Against Hunger
G-d of the poor,
G-d of the starving and the malnourished,
The voice of grief echoes across the land.
Dismayed and abandoned in a world of abundance,
Our children,
Our brothers
And our sisters
Struggle to feed their families,
Struggle to put food on the table,
As they watch emptiness and longing
Consume their kin,
As they watch disease and death,
Encircle their homes and their lives.
G-d of the poor,
G-d of the starving and the malnourished,
The voice of grief echoes across the land.
Dismayed and abandoned in a world of abundance,
Our children,
Our brothers
And our sisters
Struggle to feed their families,
Struggle to put food on the table,
As they watch emptiness and longing
Consume their kin,
As they watch disease and death,
Encircle their homes and their lives.
Source of bounty and plenty,
Rock of compassion and mercy,
You call upon us to stand in the name of justice and healing,
To witness against indifference and neglect,
To solve issues of scarcity and distribution,
To create a world of agricultural success in every land,
And among every people.
Rock of compassion and mercy,
You call upon us to stand in the name of justice and healing,
To witness against indifference and neglect,
To solve issues of scarcity and distribution,
To create a world of agricultural success in every land,
And among every people.
Bless those who dedicate their lives to the hungry and the forgotten.
Bless those who take to the cities and the countryside
to offer food and sustenance.
Bless those who teach others to feed themselves.
Bless those whose ideas and research will lead to new solutions
for ending this plague.
Bless those who plead on behalf of the needy and the poor
before the seats of power.
Give them courage and determination.
Give them wisdom and skill.
May the work of their hands never falter
Nor despair deter them from this holy calling.
Bless those who take to the cities and the countryside
to offer food and sustenance.
Bless those who teach others to feed themselves.
Bless those whose ideas and research will lead to new solutions
for ending this plague.
Bless those who plead on behalf of the needy and the poor
before the seats of power.
Give them courage and determination.
Give them wisdom and skill.
May the work of their hands never falter
Nor despair deter them from this holy calling.
Bless the hungry with resources.
Release them from want.
Hasten the day of their self-sufficiency and bounty.
Release them from want.
Hasten the day of their self-sufficiency and bounty.
Blessed are You, G-d of All Being,
Who summons us to oppose the tyranny of hunger.
Who summons us to oppose the tyranny of hunger.
-Alden Solovy at ToBendLight
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