Prayers of Others

From Chris Glaser, Coming Out to God: Prayers for Lesbians, Gay Men, Their Families and Friends (Westminster, John Knox Press, 1991) [pp. 86-87.]

“A priest sent a card of van Gogh’s “Olive Orchard.” In the tortured brush strokes, the artist reveals his own agony as he depicts Christ’s agony in Gethsemane. The priest sees in the reproduction his own spiritual struggle to accept his homosexuality.

“Let us pray for this priest and the many like him who are part of an invisible community of suffering, unknown, unfelt, unloved by the church:

We pray, O God, for those who live in closets.

For the quarter of a million homosexuals murderd in Nazi concentration camps and those who remained imprisoned despite the allied victory, who now live in history’s closet:

We pray, O God, for those who died in closets.

For millions of lesbians and gay men in other countries in which there are no support systems or groups, in which revelation leads to imprisonment, castration, or death:

We pray, O God, for those who fear in closets.

For priests, nuns, ministers, and lay church leaders who, to serve the church, cannot come out, while bringing liberation to others who are oppressed:

We pray, O God, for those who liberate from closets.

For spouses, who also must hide– non-gay spouses, protective of their loved ones’ careers, —gay lover, hiding their love under a bushel:

We pray, O God, for those who love in closets.

Thank you, God, for all who, throughout the world, struggle to make churches and cultures more inclusive, homes where there are no strangers:

O God, may closets go the way of the Berlin Wall.  Alleluia! Amen.

The following prayer is attributed to the late Thomas Merton, Roman Catholic author and mystic:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end. 

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.