Prayer of Reckoning with History

Prayer of Reckoning with History - Week of January 8, 2023

Wisdom, may we have the strength, courage, and curiosity to examine our heritages, histories of harm and histories of healing, and attend to which stories we choose cause harm or healing or other effects here and now and in our future. Wisdom, may we attend to histories and the stories we hold onto and define ourselves and others with as part of whether are generating justice, part of whether we appreciate and understand the inequities we have inherited and continue to create, part of how we might live, advocate, and work to shift for compassion and justice’s sake. Wisdom, may we understand we need not be direct inheritors of legacies of harm or privilege to bear harm or privilege today from those legacies. May we put down the words, “it wasn’t me,” “it wasn’t my people,” “I didn’t make the history,” or “I don’t make the culture,” as words of shrugging off the reality of history’s power-over and power-under inheritors. Wisdom, may we remember we are the makers of culture in our choices, in our choices to know the fullness of the past, and to make more just, equitable, and compassionate choices now. May we live knowing we are creating tomorrow’s history, and may our hands and hearts do the work of reconciliation and healing justice. Amen.