Litany for Ukraine

March 1, 2022 Fran Pratt

The bulk of my work can be accessed via Patreon
Patreon helps me make this work sustainable.
Thanks for reading and subscribing.
You can find archived litanies here, and purchase my book here.
Attribution guidelines are here.

As Russia continues its unprovoked and evil invasion of Ukraine, we pray to the Lord for our siblings there.
This prayer is intended to be prayed aloud in congregations or gatherings of any size, with attribution.

God, we are heartbroken for our Ukrainian siblings
For all who are suffering,
For all who are displaced,
For all who are fighting,
For all who are dying,
For all who are fearful,
For all who are resolute,
For all who feel hopeless.

We are sad and sick at heart
That war has once again been waged on innocents, on anyone.
We lament and mourn this tragedy
And commit to lending our strength and love to those in the fight,
Even as we ask for all bloodshed to cease.
As Christ has shamed violence, so do we.

We ask for a quick resolution to this war and an end to this invasion.
We ask for peace and safety for all Ukrainians.
We ask for wise and bold leaders who are clever, creative, and committed to the good of all.
We ask for peace on the European continent.
We ask for, and enact with our bodies, a world where war and aggression are never an option.
We ask for true justice and peace to reign over all the earth.

Thwart the bloodthirsty and power-hungry, God (1).
Deny the greedy.
Lay waste to the plans of the wicked.
Confuse the minds of evil-doers.

Somehow, we know we must love Ukraine’s enemy with them (2).
Somehow, we must tap into the compassion of God for these invaders.
Somehow, we know we must embody the peace and forgiveness of Christ (3).
Somehow, we must not let evil win the day. Help us.

Oh God, war brings us to the very ends our ourselves -
The edges of our own humanity;
It takes us so far that we have no choice but to remember our divinity, our Imago Dei,
If we are to continue in Love at all.
Christ left his peace with us (John 14:27),
Now let humanity take hold of it.

Amen

Psalm 57:3
Matthew 5:44
John 20:22,23

Transfiguration Sunday (Year C, 2022): Litany for Spiritual Practice

February 22, 2022 Fran Pratt

See also: “Transfiguration Sunday (Year C): Litany for Impatience” from 2019)

I find it interesting how the timeline goes in the story of Christ’s transfiguration. I notice that he gets transfigured (filled with light) and meets with his guides (Moses and Elijah) while he’s praying alone. Not in a group.

Jesus is in his corner minding his own business attending to his own spiritual work in solitude. And that’s where the transfiguration happens. That’s the place from which the guidance and encouragement comes. From the spiritual practice of prayer, contemplation, silence, solitude.

I meet plenty of people who think I’m totally wrong about spiritual practice. Meaning, spiritual practice that involves stillness, solitude or silence being a path to communion with God. People disagree with me, and that’s fine. The world’s mystics seem to agree, based on their writings. Regardless, I’ll still preach the gospel of the transformative (transfigurative) power of spiritual practice till my body gives out.

God, we set our intention to realize the truth about ourselves:
That we bear your image,
That your Kin-dom is within us,
When we look in a mirror, we see your glory.

get the full litany

Proper 28 (Year B, 2021): Litany for Faith in Spite of Chaos

November 10, 2021 Fran Pratt

See also: “Litany for You’re Enough a.k.a. Litany for Hannah” from 2018 for Proper 28 of Ordinary Time.

This week’s texts come with a strong sense of the temporality of our time here on the earth. The passage from Daniel 12 has an apocalyptic feel, and Christ’s words in Mark 13 have been fodder for many an end-times enthusiast and fear-monger.

But when I read the Psalm…

“I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

...I feel the answering steadfastness of the Divine.

We may hear of wars and rumors of even more wars, we may be afraid that our society is crumbling before our eyes, we may be staring catastrophic climate emergency in the face. I hear Jesus’ frank admission, with an accompanying shrug and an incline of the head, that we are going to encounter a lot of chaos here. But we who share in the Divine Image and Presence (all of us who are willing and awake to it) “rest secure.” We don’t need to be ok to be ok. We are still ok, still safe, still cared-for, even when the world is burning down. There is nowhere else to go but the love of God.

The writer of Hebrews invites us to “consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” And these passages provoke me to greater faith and commitment to doing those good deeds.

God, when the world is burning down,
When we are reaping the rewards of avarice and injustice,
When we are beset by calamity,
When we are at odds with our neighbors,
When our society’s obsessions and prejudices are revealed
When nature and history are rebuking us…

get the full litany

Proper 24 (Year B 2021): Litany for Power in Service

October 14, 2021 Fran Pratt

See also “Litany for the Greatness of God” which I wrote for these texts in 2018.

This year my attention is pulled in a different direction by these selections, specifically to Jesus’ words in Mark 10, “"You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

It’s a challenging, radical, upside down way to understand and embody power. It’s one of the colest things, in my opinion, that Jesus says. And one of the most defining characteristics of power as he demonstrates and lives it out. His kind of power comes alongside, stands rooted firmly in the ground rather than upon the backs of other people. This power leads by serving, demonstrates care and love by action and example. It is not militaristic, hyperbolic, nor imperial. It’s expansive rather than towering; winsome rather than manipulative; inviting rather than commanding.

And it comes with a healthy dose of ego-emptying.

The way Jesus imagines authority, leadership, and power, and then lives them out in the stories is honestly why I bother thinking about Jesus at all. This way is so compelling and countercultural; and it looks nothing like displays of political, governmental, and organizational power that I see happening in the world. It relieves me to know that such a way exists and finds resonance in so many spiritual traditions.

And it isn’t lost on me that the First Testament texts start off by extolling God - how high, how mighty, how solely responsible for all of creation, how far above. And then Jesus in the Gospel saying how true power comes from below, from servanthood rather than lordship. It’s a pretty stark shift in perspective, inviting us to hold two seemingly paradoxical truths in tension. Pretty juicy.

God, we have ideas about power.
Our culture teaches us that power comes from military might,
From how much wealth and resources we own,
From the number of people whose lives we control,
From what deals we make and how productive we are,
From our big guns and our big egos…

get the full litany

Proper 18 (Year B, 2021): Litany for Solidarity and Service

September 2, 2021 Fran Pratt

This week’s Lectionary texts are quite the kick in the pants. If you were asleep to the plight of the poor, WAKE UP, it tells us. If you’re unaware of the priorities of the Divine, be enlightened.

God, so many in our world are experiencing hardship and suffering,
From poverty, from environmental destruction,
From sickness, from conflicts outside our control,
From overwhelming grief, from trauma…..

get the full litany

Proper 17 (Year B, 2021): Litany for True Religion

August 25, 2021 Fran Pratt

In addition to this new litany below, I’d like to point you toward my Litany for the Heart, which I wrote for Proper 17 of Year B in 2018, and still like a lot.

In this week’s Lectionary scriptures there is a distinct theme: DEFILEMENT. James is translated as using words like “sordidness” and “rank growth of wickedness,” along with an exhortation for “keep yourself unstained by the world.”

Mark tells a story of some Pharisees criticizing followers of Jesus for eating with “defiled” (unwashed) hands, which prompts Jesus to reflect on what *actually* might cause a person to be defiled or otherwise considered unclean.

James (according to translators) and Jesus (according to Mark, according to translators) don’t seem to agree on the particulars: James says that true religion is to care for orphans and widows (that would have been the poor and marginalized of his time and place) and stresses the importance of “keep[ing] oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). But Jesus says there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." Holy Moses! A contradiction!

Regardless of what we do with this seeming contradiction, I can accept James’ advice to be a “doer” not just a “hearer” of good news, and to turn my religion from abstract thought to concrete action (like, say, wearing a mask in a global pandemic). And I can accept Jesus’ counsel to give attention to my heart, my inner being, so that what comes out of me - what I DO - is good and just. True religion.

God, in this challenging and overwhelming time on earth,
We know that we must tend ourselves and our resources well.
We don’t want to get bogged down in frivolous disputes
Or distracted by what isn’t ours to manage.

get the full litany

Easter 4, Year B (2021): Litany for Love in Action

April 20, 2021 Fran Pratt

Here is the litany I wrote for the last cycle, Year B, Easter Week 4: Litany for the Good Shepherd

For Easter Week 4 Year B in 2018, my litany focused on John 10, the “I am the Good Shepherd” passage. This year I’m leaning on the Lectionary Epistle, 1 John 3.

God, we know that if we say we love you
And neglect to love our neighbors,
Our words are empty
And our faith is practically useless …

get the full litany