Prayer Resources
Check out prayer resources from Xavier's Center for Mission and Identity here.
For the LGBTQ+ members of our Xavier community:
Merciful God,
If you know the hairs in our head--
the way we wake
the way we sleep
then you know when we
don't feel at home--
in our bodies
in our families
in the physical places
we find ourselves.
Be with us in our
disorientation & dislocation.
Remind us of our belovedness
especially when we feel the need to
keep our true selves hidden.
Kindle the fire inside us--
our purpose
our deepest desires
the Divine image in us all
who we are at our deepest core.
Feed that fire, fan that flame,
for the length of this season
especially when we tire of
doing it for ourselves.
Remind us that love always
has the last word, and that
resurrection is around the
corner.
Amen.
-Rev. Abby King-Kaiser
Slow us down enough for our dreams to be restored, for power to manifest differently, and for the oppressions on our personal power to be lifted.
Help us all to know who we really are. And most importantly, let that knowledge of self-awareness influence how we experience the world far more than race, gender, sexuality, ability, or class ever could.
As pollution decreases in the sky, let it decrease in our minds and mouths, that we may speak new life more abundantly, and think only of new ideas that restore, reconcile, heal, and repair.
As a result of our undoing and becoming in this uncertain time, May the coming generation never have to choose between health and wealth, purpose and position, or between power and morality.
I call upon courage to be our guiding virtue, and among our ancestors to help light the way.
May our next best inventions be ourselves in more loving, more giving, and more connected yet freer forms.
There are few things more powerful than creating something. Giving life to the productions of our imaginations is perhaps one of our abilities that make us most like you, God.
So as we slow down enough to perhaps resurrect dead dreams we buried under our busy schedules or give life to new ones that enter our mind, we extend an invitation to all who are willing to dare their faith to go beyond what the eyes can see to help create what our souls need most.
Amen and Ashe.
-Dr. Kyra Shahid
Prayer for Survivors of Sexual Violence
God, we come to you with this cross on our shoulders.
Backs bleeding, heads banging, tears falling
From pain not asked for
Burdens not accepted
Suffering not consented to
Wanting to be saved.
Lord, we are questioning this suffering
Not sure if we’ve failed you
Or if you’ve failed us.
God, we are searching for hope
Searching for peace
Searching for love
But they all seem out of reach
Joy
Healing
Salvation
You
Seem out of reach.
god,
walk with us.
So that we may we find
Peace when trouble blows
knowing that
The universe sees, the universe knows;
She goes through all the highs and the lows
with us
and with her,
we will find hope.
Though we live
in a world that tells us that
because we are survivors of sexual violence
we have failed society
failed ourselves
Failed our families and
Even
failed You,
May we find salvation in our knowledge that
there is nothing that can change your Godliness
and your godliness is LOVE
So we know that you have,
you still do and you will always love us.
And that this blame
This shame
This sorrow
And this suffering
Though we wear them
Do not belong to us
And should not be ours to bear.
We thank you, gods and goddesses, because you’ve shown us
that the story
does not end with this cross on our shoulders
it does not end in depression,
It does not end with a rape kit,
It does not end in a courtroom,
It does not end in a world that sees us as less than.
This story.
Our Story
Ends
with freedom.