Week of Sabbath II, Day One

Prayer in preparation for meditation:

O God,
Open my heart to hear your voice, in a whisper or a shout. Make me ready to receive you as Lord of all. Quiet the worries of the day, and come to me now. Amen

Reading:

In spite of everything, I still believe
that people are really good at heart.
I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation
consisting of confusion, misery, and death.
I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness;
I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too;
I can feel the suffering of millions, and yet,
If I look up into the heavens,
I think that it will all come right,
That this cruelty will end,
And that peace and tranquility will return again.
In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals,
For perhaps the time will come
When I shall be able to carry them out.
--Anne Frank

Meditation:

I have always loved these words from Anne Frank, who is perhaps the best known of all of those who suffered and died at the hands of the horrific Nazi regime. There is a special poignancy in the first and last sentences. They speak of a hope we know was not realized, and the loss of a beautiful spirit, a young woman who still believed in goodness, though she had witnessed first hand so much evil.

Those two sentences should be written on our hearts. It is easy to become disillusioned with our world, our leaders, and even ourselves. But God calls us to look upon the creation and see what God saw, that deeply, fundamentally, we are good. The number of people who do good in the world far outweighs the number which work for ill gains.

We must do this because it is our call, and because it prepares us for the day which Anne Frank dreamed of for herself: the day in which we will be called to live out the ideals we’ve upheld, in spite of everything.

Prayer of joy:

Great God of all creation,
Help me to see the good in your world. Help me to prepare to speak a word of justice in times of trial, and to do acts of kindness in days of turmoil. I give you thanks for making me to be your servant, and to glorify your creation. Amen