Midnight Prayer by Darrell Grizzle
Save me, O God, from the temptation to be less than fully human, less than the child of God You created me to be.
Save me, O God, from the temptation to view my sexuality as a curse, rather than as a precious Gift with which You have blessed me.
Save me, O God, from those who seek to heal what does not need healing, who seek to further wound me by making me think I am a mistake, rather than made in Your image.
Save me, O God, from easy and simplistic theology, which seems to offer security but really offers shackles and blinds the soul from knowing You in all Your complexity, beauty, and wonder.
Save me, O God, from everything and everyone that would distract me or dissuade me from living into Your calling on my life.
Amen.
Prayer in Honor of Those Whom Jesus Loved
by Joan Chittister, OSB
Jesus who loved the Samaritan woman,
outcast proclaimer of your name,let us love and support all those who proclaimyour name to the gay and lesbian community.Jesus who loved the lepers
whom others called unclean,let us see the glory of creation everywhere,in everyone.Jesus who loved the one condemned with him
and promised him heaven by virtue of his faith,give us the faith to broaden our visionof the reign of God.Jesus who loved the hemorrhaging woman,
long ignored and thought to be intrinisically disordered,give us hearts large enough to embracethose whom the world calls bent.Jesus who loved the tax collector the community feared,
enable us to put down our fear of thosewho are different from ourselves.Jesus who loved the Roman soldier,
foreigner and oppressor,help us to love those who make exiles ofour gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.Jesus who loves us in all our humanities, all our glories,
enable us to love thosewhose glories we have failed to see.You who called women disciples in a male world,
who confronted leaders of the synagogue
with their sins of injustice,who sent out your disciples to the whole world,
give us the courage to stand with
our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters,their familes and those who minister to them.
Give us the grace to confront their rejection,
to ease their loneliness,
to calm their fears, and
to belie their sense of abandonment.
Give us all the grace to own our sexual identity,
whatever its orientation,as another manifestation of your goodness.
Give us the vision to recognize and reject
the homophobia around us and in our our own hearts, as well.
May we and the church of Jesus open
our hearts and homes and sanctuariesto the gay and lesbian community,
to the glory of God they bring in new voice,
with different face.
Let us bless the God of differences.
Amen.
