Litanies & Prayers

Listen now you who linger in wasted lands, consumed with wanton hearts: The Blessed One has eyes and ears opened and tuned to the cries of your distress.

Give thanks and rejoice you faint-of-limb and sick-of-soul: An open gate of Quenching Delight stands eager to receive you.

Listen now you who languish athirst, bowels rumbling in hunger: Bountiful tables—too wondrous to behold—are spread as ransom for your ruin.

If you, O God, should keep track of all our failures,
none of us would make the grade.

But your hands heap pardon on all the penitent.
Forgiveness is your middle name.
Mercy is your mandate; pardon, your provision.

Declarations of amnesty flow from your lips.
Every remorse is met with remission.

Be gracious to me, Blessed One, for I am in distress.

My eyes are awash with grief; my bed swims in tears.

My bones bulge under the weight of unlived life.

When Jesus began his ministry, Rome was the sole superpower, governed by Tiberius, adoptive son of Caesar Augustus, whose praises were carved in stone.

From untamed territory a voice resounds: Prepare the Way! Unlock the gate! Make straight the reach of Love renowned.

Caesar was the “redeemer” who brought “salvation,” establishing “peace and security for the world,” the only true “Lord” in whom all should have “faith.”

Blessed are those whose hearts bow and whose hands fold in reverence to the Source of all life.

The bounty of the garden will fill their houses.

Their hope of redemption will guide the tempest-tossed to Heaven’s sheltered sanctuary.

by Ken Sehested

Greater love hath none than this:

Than to caress the battered heart of one whose hopes have collapsed.

by Ken Sehested

Enough! says the Insurgent of Heaven. I’ve had enough of your bank-bailing politicians and private-jetting executives! Enough of your trickle-down economies and your holiday-charity binges! Enough of your bloated-budget militaries and gated-community developers! Enough of your water-wasting, soil-squandering, air-fouling habits!

Hear, oh people of provident pasture: Judgment is coming. Heaven’s Reign and earth’s regimes are destined for collision.

by Ken Sehested

Call to Confession

The Word of Strong Deliverance is whispered in the ears of all who long for the relief of pardon. “Listen,” says the Assuring One, “all of you who thirst for righteousness, who hunger for justice, come to the waters. All of you who know you are broke, who have no way of buying your freedom, no way of bargaining for joy—come, buy, eat and rejoice!”

by Ken Sehested

John.

Such a tame name for a man born to inhabit
           the wild side of heaven’s incursion into
           earth’s contempt.