Sidebar: This and Every Day: A Prayer

By Mary Janet Murray

This day I pray –

For the mother and child waiting at the clinic for survival packed in a can of plumpy’nut

For the woman shunned by her family because her illness shames them

For the little girl with sad eyes who begs on the beach

For the great-grandmother weaving with gnarled hands

For the woman who walks four miles each morning to fill her jug with brown water

For the family living in their car

For the addict who has no teeth and no freedom

For the baby who could be sleeping under a mosquito net

This day I pray –

To see Jesus in the face of all who suffer

To do what I can to take the suffering away

To help convince the world that reconciliation is doing God’s work with our own hands

This day I pray –

That we may let God’s love lead us from intention to action

From possibility to reality

From scarcity to true abundance.

(Prayer by Mary Janet Murray from Lifting Women’s Voices: Prayers to Change the World © 2009 Morehouse Publishing. Used by permission.)