Litanies & Prayers

by Ken Sehested

Let praise leap from the lungs, ascend the throat, rattle the teeth and flutter the tongue. The Blessed Haunt of Zion calls out to all flesh. To this Embrace, everything that has breath shall come. The God who lingers in slave quarters assails every Pharaoh’s palace:

Let my people go! Proclaim liberty throughout the land!

by Ken Sehested

We engage our rituals,

we practice our disciplines,

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it. (The Talmud)

And how are we to spend ourselves for the sake of the world that God loves? For the recognition? For the virtue?

For the hope of return in the future? Maybe for the pleasure?

by Ken Sehested

Dear God:
There was a time when your provision was like
a splendid feast,
      a delicacy for the eye,
            a delight to the palate,
                  an aroma so fine it buckled my knees.

But no more.
The thrill is gone.
      The aroma gags.
            I’ve had my fill of this swill.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting

Blazing tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.

Women: Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!

Men: Speak up, that all may hear!

W: Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.

by Ken Sehested

Come close, sisters and brothers, all you who have journeyed to this House of Memory, to this Table of Delight. All you anear, welcome!. All from afar ¡bienvenido!

I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us join the assembly of mercy to hear again the mandate of peace.”

by Ken Sehested

At the conclusion of creation, God saw everything that was made, and behold, it was very good. Surely the earth is satisfied with the fruit of God’s work.

God said: I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land.

by Ken Sehested,  following the 2010 British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

In the beginning, darkness covered the face of the deep.

Then the Breath of Heaven swept across the waters, blessing the sea with all manner of creatures.

Listen close, God.

When we get together and sing

“Down By the Riverside,” we mean it.