Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY July 5

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It's still the Fourth of July weekend so let's take some time to recall Emma Lazarus' poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty, offering a haven, a refuge  for the burdened and battered.  In the video here, Irving Berlin provides a musical setting for these beautiful words from Lazarus' poem and my Pause for Prayer follows...

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Let's pause and pray...

Lord, open wide my heart
   to welcome any and all
who've been turned out,
   turned aside and turned away:
in my family, in my neighborhood
   where I work and 'round the world...

May the light of my words and deeds
   lift high a lamp of welcome
and my heart provide a home
   for the weary, heavy burdened...

Let my heart open wide for others, Lord,
   as your heart opens wide for me...

Amen.

 
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