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Our nation is divided, Lord:
the gap between the two sides
could widen the Grand Canyon
from coast to coast...
Bitterness and bias, Lord:
lies, mistrust and prejudice,
hostility, sneering sarcasm
and violence, deadly violence....
And all of this, Lord,
on both sides of the divide...
It's painful, Lord, to see revealed
how divided, how broken we are
how deep our common wounds,
how helpless, how weak,
how much in need of healing we are...
Unwilling to lay aside our fictions for fact,
we surrender service for comfort,
justice for profit
and unity for partisanship...
As you well know, Lord, there's no easy fix here,
no facile reconciliation, no overnight solution:
our wounds are much too deep
and of the kind that only time, humility and sacrifice
can ever hope to heal - and, of course, Lord, prayer -
we need to pray, we need to pray for healing...
we need to pray, we need to pray for healing...
We'll not heal ourselves,
we'll not right these wrongs on our own,
we'll not salvage our nation's promise and glory
we'll not salvage our nation's promise and glory
through self-determination:
only with your grace and strength and power, Lord,
will we find the help, hope and healing we seek
and need so much...
And so, we pray, Lord:
for the counsel we need
to heal the roots of our division;
for the counsel we need
to heal the roots of our division;
for the wisdom we need
to find and live by truth;
for the strength we need
to rebuild what we've foolishly dismantled;
and for the perseverance we need
to resolve what seems impossible...
Renew our faith in you, our Creator
who endow us with certain unalienable rights
and with their corresponding duties,
responsibilities and obligations...
Send us your Spirit, Lord,
to renew us in your image,
to refresh and strengthen us with your grace
to lead us and guide us to peace
and to liberty and justice for all...
Help us seek and find you
in the whole of creation, Lord,
and especially in one another
in this land we call our own,
in this nation we call home...
Amen.
Heal Our Nation
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