As you know, we are commemorating the one year anniversary of the pandemic this month. As Interim Executive Chip Hardwick has been visiting presbytery meetings, he has been sharing a Prayer for Grieving 500,000 Dead to COVID in the United States, composed by Maren Tirabassi for her blog Gifts in Open Hands. I’m grateful that Sharon Core, General Presbyter of the Presbytery of the Western Reserve, brought it to my attention. There have been several requests for it, so please find it here, very slightly adapted.
Holy One,
who blesses those that mourn
and do not hurry into being comforted,
we sit down into the loss
of those we know,
and those that now
we’ll never have a chance to know.
We grieve the stories they will not live,
the songs they will not sing,
the children they will not have,
the hope they will not offer
to those around them,
the inventions they will not patent,
the art, poetry, ink, music,
shingling a house, legal argument,
good tune-up and tire rotation,
diagnosis, surgical procedure,
gentle placement of a ventilator,
dental cleaning, quilt,
strawberry picking,
produce counter stocking,
life-guard undertow rescue,
lullaby, recipe and vote
that will never be made.
We grieve the birthday candles
on cakes they will never taste.
We grieve for their parents
and their children, their families,
their colleagues and their friends.
We grieve memories slipping away
waiting for memorial services.
We grieve that the very sadness
ebbs away from weariness
or the new whisper of good news.
O God, our masks are wet with tears
and our fingers shake holding balloons
at nursing home windows.
Comfort us, we pray. amen
Please find the original posting here: https://giftsinopenhands.wordpress.com/2021/02/22/prayer-for-grieving-500000-dead-of-covid-19-in-the-united-states/