Week 2 | Prayers, Practices, and Meditations for LGBTQ+ Christians and Allies
Q Christian is posting four weeks’ worth of daily prayers and spiritual practices. In a time of isolation for many, we hope the voices of these saints, past and present, will bring hope, peace, and joy in the midst of uncertainty and suffering in our world.
Week 2, Day 1
Crisis often triggers a desire for control. When we are out of control of our circumstances, we can feel vulnerable and unsafe. Focus today on relinquishing the need for control.
Read the following prayer from St. Teresa of Avila. When finished, stretch out your hand in front of you and clench your fist together. Breath in slowly. Breath out, slowly unfolding your palm as an outward sign of releasing the need for control. Rest in the knowledge that you are loved and that you are never alone.
A Love Song
St. Teresa of Avila
Majestic sovereign, timeless wisdom,
your kindness melts my hard, cold soul.
Handsome lover, selfless giver,
your beauty fills my dull, sad eyes.
I am yours, you made me.
I am yours, you called me.
I am yours, you saved me.
I am yours, you loved me.
I will never leave your presence.
Give me death, give me life.
Give me sickness, give me health.
Give me honour, give me shame.
Give me weakness, give me strength.
I will have whatever you give.
Amen.
Week 2, Day 2
In isolation we may face one of our biggest fears; Ourselves. Take a walk outside and read the following prayer. Reflect on the words of Abbe Michel Quoist, noting the smells and the sounds around you. Feel the wind or the rain or the sunshine on your skin.
Extend grace to yourself today and remember that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Adapted from Lord, Deliver Me From Myself
By Abbe Michel Quoist
Lord, do you hear me?
I’m suffering dreadfully,
Locked in myself,
Prisoner of myself,
I hear nothing but my own voice,
I see nothing but myself,
And behind me there is nothing but suffering.
Lord, do you hear me?
Deliver me from my mind; it is full of itself, of its ideas,
its opinions; it cannot carry on a dialogue, as no words reach
it but its own.
Alone, I am bored
I am weary
I would like to get away,
Walk, run to another land.
I know that joy exists; I have seen it on singing faces.
I know that light exists; I have seen it in radiant eyes.
But, Lord, I cannot get away, for I love my prison
even while I hate it,
for my prison is myself.
Lord, Lord, do you hear me?
Lord, show me the door,
Take me by the hand.
Open the door.
Show me the way,
the path leading to joy, to light.
Week 2, Day 3
As days stretch into weeks of distancing from others, we may become impatient with the world’s slow healing process. In this extended pause from normal life, let us lean into the unknown and let something new take shape in us.
Read the following text and take a moment to create something new today. Write a song, draw a picture, bake a pie, whatever feels life-giving to you. Be aware of every step of the process, start to finish, and reflect on how something formless slowly takes shape. Give thanks that we too are in process.
The Slow Work of God
By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end
Without delay.
We should like to skip
The intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on
The way to something unknown,
Something new,
And yet it is the law of all progress
That it is made by passing through
Some stages of instability ---
And that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually ---
Let them grow,
Let them shape themselves,
Without undue haste.
Don't try to force them on,
As though you could be today
What time will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
Gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
That Their hand is leading you,
And accept the anxiety of
Feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Amen.
Week 2, Day 4
You may be tempted to ruminate on what is wrong in the world today. There is decidedly much to fear and be anxious about. Today, let us focus our attention on what is good and beautiful in our lives.
Read the following prayer by Howard Thurman. Make a list or say aloud everything you are grateful for today. Take time to thank God and others for the things you identify in this time of self reflection.
A Litany of Thanksgiving
By Howard Thurman
Today, I make my Sacrament of Thanksgiving.
I begin with the simple things of my days:
Fresh air to breathe,
Cool water to drink,
The taste of food,
The protection of houses and clothes,
The comforts of home.
For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day!
I bring to mind all the warmth of humankind that I have known:
My mother’s arms,
The strength of my father
The playmates of my childhood,
The wonderful stories brought to me from the lives
The tears I have shed, the tears I have seen;
The excitement of laughter and the twinkle in the
Eye with its reminder that life is good.
For all these I make an act of Thanksgiving this day
The big hope that never quite deserts me, that I and my kind
Will study war no more, that love and tenderness and all the
inner graces of Almighty affection will cover the life of the
children of God as the waters cover the sea.
All these and more than mind can think and heart can feel,
I make as my sacrament of Thanksgiving to Thee,
Our Father, in humbleness of mind and simplicity of heart.
Amen.
Week 2, Day 5
As we face boredom and anxiety, we may find ourselves coping in unhealthy ways to get through the day. Perhaps it is a substance or a relationship that we have looked to for comfort when all else fails. Maybe it is over-functioning or under-functioning in our daily lives.
Read the following poem by Audre Lorde. Where do you gravitate to in times of stress? Are there adjustments you need to make in your life to be healthy during this season and the next? Invite the Spirit in to help you discern these questions.
Coping
By Audre Lorde
My God,
It has rained for five days
running
the world is
a round puddle
of sunless water
where small islands
are only beginning
to cope
a young boy
in my garden
is bailing out water
from his flower patch
when I ask him why
he tells me
young seeds that have not seen sun
forget
and drown easily.
Amen.
