One year after Helene:
A prayer for healing, hope and remembrance
A prayer for the anniversary of Hurricane Helene.
Lord, the geese are flying south again.
We hear them, harsh voices echoing across the mountains.
They mark a year since Helene:
a year since trees cracked and uprooted,
since floodwaters raged,
since shocked stillness fell over a mud-strewn landscape,
broken only by calling geese.
Meanwhile, as your daughter Mary Oliver said,
the world has gone on.
We give thanks for what has helped us:
chainsaws, mules, hot meals, hands reaching to rescue,
feet coming to help, prayers without ceasing,
ministries coordinated, plans laid, funds raised,
tears in the arms of friends and strangers,
and laughter amid our tears.
We rebuke what hurts us:
judgement erasing solidarity,
manipulation of our stories for political gain,
abuse of the environment that worsens the storms,
and neglect of vulnerable people
for whom disasters hit the hardest.
Lord, we repent of how we fail each other.
We ask for strength and hope to build a better world together.
We ask for healing for those still recovering, and for the land.
We ask for patience for each other, in our trauma and grief.
We ask for redemption for all creation.
As the world keeps going on,
and Helene is just one of a list of disasters,
we pray that you protect our soft animal bodies.
Bring us rest and peace.
Then, Lord, make us like the geese:
announcing loudly, again and again,
stories of those we have lost and what we have learned –
grace and salvation, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia –
all the way home.
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