The prayer below appears on the first day of January each year.\u00a0 If I am not mistaken, it is the oldest prayer I ever recite, several thousand years deep in the liturgy that helps open the first day of each year in the Christian tradition.\u00a0\u00a0 Yesterday, my Lakota daughter, Mary Tobacco, and my sister, Mary Staudenmaier, and I joined in a mid-afternoon prayer \u2014 several sacred prayers followed by prayers for, and in gratitude for, people who know us, and who bless us, and who need us.\u00a0 Because Mary Tobacco lives in an intense infection zone – – The Pine Ridge Lakota reservation is generally considered the poorest county in the United States – – Mary lobbies for desperate people.\u00a0 Yesterday through c. one foot of snow, she and her team of 35 men and women delivered firewood and food along the district\u2019s back roads.\u00a0\u00a0 We prayed for the elders and the children, prayed about hunger, and the pandemic\u2019s dangers.<\/p>\n
When we turned to the January 1 prayer, the two Marys with whom I prayed found this ancient prayer nourishing and beautiful. \u00a0\u00a0Mary T asked us to pray it again this morning as we began our day.\u00a0\u00a0 Here it is;\u00a0 best to read the prayer out loud, with pauses.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
May the Lord Bless you
\nand keep you
\nMay she make her face
\nshine on you
\nand be kind to you
\nmay he turn his face tenderly toward you and bring you peace.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Have a blest week,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
john sj<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The prayer below appears on the first day of January each year.\u00a0 If I am not mistaken, it is the oldest prayer I ever recite, several thousand years deep in the liturgy that helps open the first day of each … Continue reading