A Blessing of Hope . . .

 

Rough Translations by Jan Richardson

Hope nonetheless.

Hope despite.

Hope regardless.

Hope still.

Hope where we had ceased to hope.

Hope amid what threatens hope.

Hope with those who feed our hope.

Hope beyond what we had hoped.

Hope that draws us past our limits.

Hope that defies expectations.

Hope that questions what we have known.

Hope that makes a way where there is none.

Hope that takes us past our fear.

Hope that calls us into life.

Hope that holds us beyond death.

Hope that blesses those to come.

From: Circle of Grace, Wanton Gospeller Press, Orlando, FL, 2015

 http://www.janrichardson.com/index.htmlichardson.com 

©Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com 

Prayer for Hope . . .

 

Help Us to Hope 

O loving God,

we thank you for bringing us the rivers and streams of this world.

May the rivers we know be an image of the stream

that you want to flow within each one of us.

Teach us now, take away all fear,

dare to let us believe that we could really be a small part

of a reconstructed society, that we could build again.

Take away our cynicism.

Take away our lack of hope.

Take away our own anger and judgments.

We thank you for the faith and the desire that is in our hearts.

You have planted it there. Now help us to preserve it,

protect it and increase it.

We long for vision, God.

We need vision and we know we will perish without it.

Help us open each new day to a new meaning,

to a new hope, to a deeper desiring.

Show us your face, loving God, and we will be satisfied.

We ask for all this in Jesus’ name.

AMEN. (Richard Rohr, ofm)

Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety (2001)