An Election Day prayer
Lord, as we meet our obligations as citizens on Election Day, open our hearts.
Keep us mindful of our failures, as stewards of your creation, to preserve and cherish this earth, our island home, which is more and more ravaged by fire and flood.
Keep us mindful of your commandment to welcome the stranger, even as many seeking refuge are turned away from our gates or are met with conscienceless cruelty.
Keep us mindful of those who suffer terror from the very skies, as endless war consumes so many nations.
Keep us mindful of those who are taken from their families and locked away in places of suffering and distress.
Keep us mindful of our neighbors next door. There are whose very homes become too great a tax obligation bear. There are those who have lost their homes and walked the streets. There are those whom hopelessness has driven to addiction for which help is beyond reach. There are those among the sick who have not the means to get the medicine they need.
Keep us mindful too of those who abuse the office which has been given to them. Those whose response to the hopelessness and suffering in the world is to fortify their own place with more and more wealth, which will never be enough. Let us remember that this too is an addiction, Lord. Let those who are so addicted find the bridge to cross the river of denial.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.