Praying is a way of seeing. When we pray, we peek behind the surface realities of life: work, routine, relationships - and we remind ourselves that there is a God who gave us life and calls us to live that life in an awareness of him.
The prayer I'm sharing today asks for clearer sight and acknowledges that often we don't see things as well as we should. It's by Gerard Kelly and from his book Spoken Worship.
When we claim to have foresight
Second sight
And insight
When in reality
Even our first sight is short:
Father, open our eyes.
When we blunder on blindly
Like ships in dense fog,
Never knowing
How truly lost we are,
Never seeing
Past the end of our needs:
Father, open our eyes.
When we collide with one another
Like bats with malfunctioning radar,
Not even noticing
The damage we have done:
Father, open our eyes.
When we walk through your world
As if we ourselves
Had made it
And fail to recognise
The fingerprints you leave:
Father, open our eyes.
When we are blind to your presence
In the eyes of the poor,
Blind to the perfection
That lies visibly before us,
Blind to your handiwork,
Blind to your care,
Blind to the signs
That you scatter around us:
Father, heal our sight.
Sheila Bridge
Hi there, would you consider removing this prayer? I am a deaf Christian, and the kind of imagery that Gerard Kelly uses in this prayer is really quite detrimental. It draws on false parallels between being blind and being spiritually inadequate - while I'm sure the writer didn't mean to be hurtful, this kind of language is completely unhelpful for the assumptions that it reinforces about people who have a disability. It isn't about political correctness, it's about being respectful towards people who have been marginalised for centuries. I really recommend the writing of the blind theologian John M. Hull for more details about this. best wishes, Nick
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