We believe in divine tenderness, which is no stranger to our anxieties, which is generously supportive in Jesus of Nazareth, a tireless walker to the directions that herald Life.
We affirm our faith and renew our hopes in times of uncertainty, isolation, sickness and death, because we have heard the proclamation of those who have promised us the enduring life, the liberation of every strip of darkness.
You are life and resurrection, you are our Force in times of affliction. You are life and resurrection, you are our Light, friend and Saviour.
We recognize ourselves with a thirst for hugs and hungry for encounters, longing for the communions that are now distant to us, but we confess that in God we do not fear or be discouraged and that we will wait patiently and confidently for the time of re-meetings and the shared table.
We believe in the networks that sustain us and in the words that cross distances to keep company, we discover the value of applause and music and the distant closeness of loved people. And we see there too, flashes of divine grace.
You are life and resurrection, you are our Force in times of affliction. You are life and resurrection, you are our Light, friend and Saviour.
We believe in days of light to come, in a morning that will discover us different, better, on earth freed from so many mistreatment received and in the cleanest heavens and the purest air and the most honest glances and the noblest actions.
And we affirm this because we have known those who came to give us Life, to share the best news, to point out to us the horizon of fullness, to embrace us in our pains, to give us comfort in times of affliction, to grant us new opportunities, to run the stones of all lockdowns, to overcome all oppressions and to give us all freedoms. Amen.
The source for this prayer is Red Crearte of Argentina of which Gerardo Oberman is Coordinator. ‘We invite you to use the liturgical and musical resources included in the e-book entitled ‘Empires will fall. The transformative power of tenderness’, edited by Dan González Ortega and Gerardo Oberman. It contains resources created as part of a meeting of the Crearte Network, held in 2019 in Mexico City.’ While many of the resources do not utilize inclusive images and metaphors, those that do are powerful.