Every Heart That Prays

Prayer of the week

I lift my heart in prayer,

With every heart that prays:

In cathedrals, in chapels, in strip mall sanctuaries;

In monasteries and lamaseries and ashrams;

In temples, synagogues, mosques,

In meeting-houses, prayer kivas, and illegal house churches.

With every heart that prays

On her knees before a kitchen shrine,

On his feet beneath a wide blue sky,

In forest grottoes and desert caves.

In birthing rooms and at gravesides,

At family dinners and soup kitchens,

In airplanes and prison cells,

Armchairs and battlefields,

And all the sacred places.

With every heart that prays

In joy and gratitude

In sorrow and suffering

In devotion

In confusion

In need

In grace.

To every heart that prays

To them, that our prayer may be perfected.

And to those hearts that have forgotten how,

To them, in gentle remembering.

With every heart, I lift my heart

Pulsing in love and in peace

Across the connective tissue uniting all hearts

In this great, holy body

Journeying home.