Friday, March 14, 2025

A Poem, A Proverb, A Painting, A Prayer: A Lenten Journey-- Day 10: Friday after the 1st Sunday in Lent

Today’s Theme: Loving the Stranger and Refugee


Poem: Refugees—(read each line from top to bottom, then bottom to top)
They have no need of our help

So do not tell me

These haggard faces could belong to you or I

Should life have dealt a different hand

We need to see them for who they really are

Chancers and scroungers

Layabouts and loungers

With bombs up their sleeves

Cut-throats and thieves

They are not

Welcome here

We should make them

Go back to where they came from

They cannot

Share our food

Share our homes

Share our countries

Instead let us

Build a wall to keep them out
------------- Brian Bilston (Phil Millicheap) (1970- ) British poet and businessman who started on Twitter and obscures his identity a la Banksy


Proverb:
“You shall also love the stranger, 
     for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
-------------- Deuteronomy 10:19, from today’s Daily Office



Painting: Hoping to Survive, Razieh Gholami, 2019, Afghan refugee in Europe

      


Prayer: For Refugees and Those in Distress
Let us open up our hearts to You,
O Divine Love,
that they may teach us your ways of justice and peace.

From the shadow of your wings may the weary take refuge, O Holy One;
let us gather strength from your loving embrace.

Shield the homeless and the refugee
from the whirlwind of violence and want, O God:
let us welcome the traveler into our midst.

May we help bring peace
to hearts torn asunder by war, cruelty, and indifference,
and may their cry come to You, O God of Justice.

Merciful God, place your hand of healing
over all who are ill or in distress:
guide and strengthen the hands of doctors, nurses, and caregivers.
Together, O Lord, we lift before you these beloved children
whose hope is in You.
Amen.
-------------Leslie Barnes Scoopmire, 2015

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