Proper 7, Year B: Litany for Hearts Wide Open

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Here is my previous litany from 2018, Year B, Proper 7: Litany for the Desperate

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we are remembering. Re-membering. Putting the body of knowledge back together again. Becoming conscious members once again of a Community. We forget that we are part of the body of God. We forget that our true selves are “hidden with Christ in God.” And that DOESN’T MEAN that our true selves are hidden from us or inaccessible to us. It means we are enfolded in God, God being all around everywhere available. Waiting to be remembered.

(I’m using words to try to express a fairly profound spiritual truth, which is always tricky business.)

My point is: I’m thinking (and learning from many spiritual teachers) that it is our work here to re-member ourselves as parts of Christ/God on earth. And then to live out that essential truth in our thoughts, words, and actions.

And then Saint Paul speaks so beautifully about the paradoxes we are muddling through here on earth, and how we are learning to recognize our true selves among all this contrast. He says: “Our hearts are wide open.” Which I take as a shorthand way of expressing that our hearts are mirroring God’s heart as part of God’s heart. We assume the wide-open-hearted posture of God toward all beings, toward ourselves, toward each other. When we can do this, we’ve come home to our true nature and the world will reverberate with our home-coming.

God, we are here in this realm of contrast, relativity, and duality,
Learning to recognize ourselves -
You in us, us in you.
You flung open your heart to us!

Proper 6 (Year B): Litany for Perceiving Beyond Appearance



As I read through this week’s Lectionary passages, I’m reflecting on God’s advice to Samuel as he has to pick yet another king for the fractious Hebrew nation, after Saul’s kingship turns disastrous: "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7).

This theme of perceiving beyond appearance is reinforced in the Ezekiel: “I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree…” and in the 2 Corinthians: “we regard no one from a human point of view”. And finally it’s there in the words of Christ in Mark 4 regarding the Mustard Seed: “smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs…”

Jesus says in the beatitudes: don’t judge. These texts bring us back to that non-judgement, that call to humility. Remember: you have no idea what you’re looking at. You have no idea the true nature of the person you’re talking to, beyond the fact that they are innately beloved and part of the Imago Dei. You have no idea what this seed can become. You have no idea what diamonds lie behind these wounds.

God, we look at tiny seeds,
Which appear insignificant, easily lost,
With no notion of the potential they hold, or what they might become,
Given the right nurturing:
Soil, water, sunlight,
A recipe for greatness (1).

Proper 5 (Year B): Litany for Non-Hierarchy

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Human societies are addicted to hierarchies. At least, that’s my theory. This First Testament story from 1 Samuel illustrates my point.

For about 300 years after the time of Joshua, after the Exodus and desert wandering, the Hebrew people had been governed by an amorphous group of leaders - Judges, functioning as ad hoc mediators and elders. More guiding the nation than ruling it. No centralized government. No conglomerated power. A communal effort. Plus there were the priests and Samuel the prophet, trying to listen to God.

The people hate it. At least the loud ones do. (Personally, I wonder what the mothers thought…?) And beg Samuel the Prophet/Priest to find them a king. They want a ruler to bring glory and prosperity and victory to them. They want to be like other respectable “kingdoms.”

God says to Samuel: you may as well listen to them because they aren’t going to let me lead them. So Samuel warns them in no uncertain terms: this way lies empire, war, toil, loss, oppression, slavery. Yes, we want this, they say. So Samuel, resigned, agrees to “renew the kingship.” And Saul is appointed King over Israel.

Of course, Samuel was right. Hierarchy begets oppression. It did then, and it does to this day.

We also get the account from Genesis of the first shame. Adam and Eve in the garden, found out for eating forbidden fruit, experiencing shame for the first time. I read this story all kinds of ways. Today I think: What if the knowledge was knowledge of hierarchy? Hierarchy begets shame.

And then, in the gospel text from Mark 3, Jesus says: here are my mother and brothers. Pointing at… everybody. No hierarchy of relationship. No one person having more access to God’s goodness than any other.

God, our minds are being opened to the ways we are harmed by hierarchal systems.
We see this in the scripture stories (1),
We see this in our family histories,
And we see it at work in our societies:
When a few people are at the top,
A lot of people are always at the bottom…

Trinity Sunday (Year B, 2021): Litany for the Song of Oneness

I’m a fan of the Trinitarian theme: disparate entities forming a whole; separate consciousnesses merging; individuals (gloriously individuated) voluntarily partnering toward Oneness. It puts me in mind of Saint Paul’s words in Ephesians 2 and Colossians 1: “You who were once far off have been brought near...” (Ephesians 2:13, INCL) and “[i]n Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth… and all things hold together in Christ” (Colossians 1:15,17). 

I get the idea that Christ has the ability to hold all this together because he’s practiced the skill in the context of the Trinity. 

But this idea isn’t necessarily coming from this week’s Lectionary texts. These particular passages are extolling a fearsom and glorious “LORD” in the Isaiah and Psalm, who “shakes the wilderness; and highlighting a separation between flesh and spirit in the epistle - “for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live..” Where is the Trinitarian Oneness here? 

My guess is its up to us, up to the work we do here as reflections of Christ and the Godhead, gathering up disparate elements and melding them; taking the circuitry of body and spirit and re-connecting them. We form the connective tissue that binds heaven to earth. We do the work of wholeness-making because we are made in the image of the Christ - a universal gravity holding all things together. In Christ we make cohesive wholes out of fractious fractions. 

The story of the Trinity is written inside every human body. Two disparate, separate cells find a place of quiet warmth; they relinquish their individuality to become a Third. Father, Mother, Child. Creator, Spirit, Body. Breath, Dust, and Embodiment. Heaven, Earth, and We-who-straddle-worlds. 

This week’s litany draws from the Lectionary passages for Trinity Sunday, Year B; namely the Isaiah 6 and Psalm 29, plus a bit of extra lagniappe I threw in. 

God, we turn our attention again to the imagery of the Trinity, 
Of Three-in-One, 
Of Divine wholeness, holiness, sacredness, 
Oneness, togetherness.


Proper 29, Year A (Reign of Christ): Litany for Pandemic Response

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This week’s litany is specifically focused on the pandemic, as is the attention of most of the U.S. with 247,000 dead, and over 1000 per day losing their lives to uncontrolled COVID-19. When I hear the words of Christ here in Matthew 25 saying, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me..,” all I can hear is the pleas of doctors and nurses to please wear a mask, don’t go to gatherings or bars, keep your distance. These are small acts of love that, lamentably, so many people who say they follow Christ are neglecting.

This parable is a powerful critique on this moment. On how we are responding collectively to this crisis and those most in danger of harm from it. On how willing or unwilling we are to do concrete but simple acts of love.

Honestly, I can’t get it out of my head. I have trouble understanding the world right now. It’s hard to write liturgy for these times, y’all.


God, help us to see that even the tiniest actions we do or don’t do
Can be a testament to love:
Wearing a mask,
Staying home instead,
Visiting outdoors at a few paces distance,
Taking measured precautions…

Proper 28 (Year A, 2020): Litany for God's Mercy

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I have deep grief this week for the American Church and what I personally perceive as its rampant complicity with evil. I grieve even as I am elated to have the first woman elected to high federal office, for this momentous thing to happen in my lifetime, for my daughters and I to witness.

This litany follows along with the Lectionary readings for this week, but is a cry of my own heart. Much of the language is taken directly from the scriptures. Perhaps you can echo it.


Oh God, look upon us now
And have mercy.
For our society’s dysfunctions are set before you,
Our secret sins revealed in the light of your countenance (1).

Proper 27 (Year A, 2020): Litany for Lady Wisdom

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Well, I just had to; Lady Wisdom is too beautiful and compelling not to address. So here is another litany for this week, Proper 27, Year A, based in the account of Lady Wisdom as told in the Wisdom of Solomon.

God, we are looking the one who makes Herself found by seekers:
Lady Wisdom (1).
We fix our thoughts on her
And she graciously appears (2).

Proper 26 (Year A, 2020): Litany for Mirroring

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In this week’s Lectionary selections, the prophet Micah calls out those who lead God’s “people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths” (Micah 3;5).

And Christ, in an echo of Micah’s fiery whistleblowing, calls out the scribes and Pharisees of his day: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:4)

As we finish out this election cycle over the next week, it makes sense to become reflective about our society. How do we treat those who “put nothing in their mouths,” the hungry, poor, houseless? What burdens do we lay on the shoulders of the disabled, the least politically powerful, the least upwardly mobile, the sick? And how might we become willing to move them? These are, in part, what we are voting about. But they are also an invitation to reflect on our own lives and practice. And we know from these sacred scriptures, that God is silence and shadow toward the unjust (Micah 3: 6,7); that God humbles the exalted and exalts the humble (Matthew 23:12).

Are we listening to and voting in solidarity with the most marginalized people in society? Are we listening to Black women, Women of Color, LGBTQ voices, the perspectives of the Disabled, the unjustly incarcerated, the under-resourced? This is what we have the opportunity to reflect on now, that we are invited into both by this Lectionary and by this cultural and historic moment.

God, you invite us to hold the scriptures up
LIke a mirror ,
To perceive ourselves in their plane,
To reflect upon our works, policies, and actions….

Proper 25 (Year A, 2020): Litany for Love Your Neighbor

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(Litany for Hatred is also for Proper 25 of Year A)

This litany is based in the teachings of Christ in Matthew 22. "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”


God we ask for help in loving our neighbors (1) -
Those who are different from us,
Those whose ethnicity or nation of origin is different from ours,
Those whose race is different from ours,
Those whose political affiliation is different from ours,
Those whose religious practices are different from ours…




Proper 24 (Year A): Litany for the Imprint of God

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(Note: here is an alternative litany for Proper 24 of Year A)

In Matthew 22, Jesus demonstrates a startling lesson to any of us who might be confused about the separation of church and state. The Pharisee are trying to entrap him into some treasonous statement for which they might turn him in and be rid of his unsettling influence on the people and his undermining of their religious power. First they try to butter him up with flattery: “we know you don’t show partiality…” (It’s true. He doesn’t.) And then they hit him with a tax question (tricky in any age).

And he says: whose face is on this coin? Caesar’s? Then it must be a thing born out of a Cesarous imagination… (Matthew 22:20).

Whose face is on your DNA? Whose image are you made in? Whose image is the natural world made in? Whose image do you bear? Then to whom do you belong, and to what Kin-dom Community? And to whom will you give what you are, your gifts?


God, show us your ways (1),
So that we might know The One Whose Image We Bear (2),
The one whose stamp is on us,
Whose imagination brought us the natural world
Whose creativity begot the beauties of nature and humanity
Whose invites us into alignment with Love….






Proper 23 (Year A, 2020): Litany for the Banquet

This week's litany centers around the text from Matthew 22, the story of the banquet, and Psalm 23 - two invitations into "green pastures and still waters," and into celebration of life amidst all the turmoil. 

(Here is the litany for the same lectionary selections from Year A which I wrote in 2017: Litany for Rescue. )

God, let your peace find every crack possible (1)
Through which to seep into our hearts;
Let it have the persistence of water
To soften every hardened place within us. 

Proper 22 (Year A): Litany for Vineyards

Here is a link to a previous litany I wrote for Proper 22, Year A: Litany for Laws 

This week’s Lectionary readings circle around a central agricultural metaphor - of vineyards: what goes on in them, what grows in them, what happens when people misuse them. Three of the texts for this week, Isaiah 5, Psalm 80, and Matthew 21, all utilize this theme. This litany is an exploration of the vineyard, and the lessons we receive from these texts. 

God, we know that you created the world,
And it was good. It is good.
Humankind has, in many ways, misused and mistreated it,
And each other. 

Proper 19 (Year A): Litany for Reassurance

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The times are chaotic, and I hope this litany, referencing Psalm 103, Romans 14, and Matthew 18, can make way for the Divine to offer some reassurance to your community this week. 


God, we come to this day in need of reassurance.
We know we have been at fault.
We know we have been complicit in various ways.
We become discouraged and hopeless.
We become cynical and apathetic.
We need assurance of your unfailing love…



Proper 18 (Year A): Litany for Conflict Resolution

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This litany is inspired by Christ’s teaching on conflict resolution and unity as recorded in Matthew 18, the Lectionary Gospel text for this week.

God, we want to live in good conscience.
We want our actions to match our words.We want our relationships to reflect our love.
We want our lives to reflect the beauty of Christ. 

Proper 17 (Year A): Litany for Suffering

(Note: this litany goes along with the First Testament reading for this week. )

In Matthew 16, this week’s Lectionary Gospel reading, Jesus is clear with his followers about what’s ahead: great suffering. Peter can’t stand the thought. He thinks everything must be wrong if suffering is involved. Jesus rebukes him strongly for this. 

Because he knows and points out that suffering is part of this journey here. Just because there’s suffering doesn’t mean he’s on the wrong path. He won’t be exempt from the human condition, from an experience of suffering, loss, death, betrayal, pain. He doesn’t seek it out, but he knows it will find him. 

I never want to glorify suffering, nor insist upon it. I never want to cause or sanctify it. Rather I want to acknowledge it when it comes, and work to remedy it. I want a world in which suffering is no more. 

God, we are suffering. Our siblings are suffering.
Suffering from the effects of systemic injustice,
Brutality and violence,
Racism and inequity,
Political polarization and environmental abuse,
Greed and oppression.

Proper 16 (Year A): Litany for Renewing the Mind

This litany follows the Lectionary texts for Proper 16 of Ordinary time in Year A. I added references to 1 Corinthians 2 and, as ever, Luke 1.  I would also like to call attention to the story of the Hebrew Midwives in Exodus 1, which is also part of this week's readings, and for which I have an accompanying litany - it happens to be one of my favorite I've ever written: Litany for the Midwives. 

God, we are in a time of upheaval:
Political,
Spiritual,
Religious,
Cultural,
Ecological.
Many suffer for lack of stability and resources
Support, care, and services…




Proper 15 (Year A): Litany for What Comes Out

n 2017, the litany I wrote for Proper 15 in Year A covered some of the First Testament texts for the week. This year I’m focusing on the gospel passage, Matthew 15. 

God we know that out of the mouth
The heart speaks.
It’s not how put-together we are on the outside that defines us -
Not how attractive or fancy or impressive we are -It’s the state of our hearts
And what proceeds from them.

Proper 14 (Year A): Litany for the Impossible



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This week’s Gospel reading is Matthew’s account of Jesus doing the impossible: walking on water. Peter asks to join him on the water, and when he looks down, sinks, Jesus says incredulously, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

(see also: Litany for Solitude)

Western civilization has overcivilized our imaginations. We are so stuck in our economic and political status quo that we consider - have been conditioned by powers that benefit from it to consider -  a better world to be impossible. Our apathy and lack of imagination are well on display in this current moment. 

Will we revise our expectations? Will we do the impossible? Will we bring the Commonwealth of Heaven, to which Jesus so often referred and on which he staked his reputation and actions, here to earth, following in his imaginative footsteps? 



God, we know that we are programmed and conditioned -
By society and culture,
By religion and expectation - 
To distinguish the possible from the impossible.

Proper 11 (Year A): Litany for Not Getting it Right

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Here is my Litany for Jacob's Ladder from 2017. Plus this year's offering based on the Psalms for this week, Proper 11. 


God, you have searched and known us,
You are acquainted with all our ways .
You know how often we misunderstand,
How prone we are to mistakes,
How limited our perspective,
How frequently we misjudge…

Proper 10 (Year A): Litany for the Word of Love

I'd like to call your attention to this litany from Year A in 2016, "Litany for Wheat and Weeds", that also follows this week's Lectionary selections.

Here is this year's offering, taken from Psalm 65, Psalm 119, and Isaiah 55.


God, your word is a lamp to our feet
And a light to our path.
Everywhere we look, the world is obscured
By the shadow of Not-love…