I haven't been to mass in, I think, two months. I simply don't want to spend an hour of my life daydreaming in a church pew. I have always struggled with the idea that the communion wafer is the real presence of Jesus, who doesn't seem that real to me anyway. Oddly, the less I believe in the theology about him, the more I like him as a human being. He is, after all, the man who defended sinful women against their accusers and believed in teaching women. He also understood the devastating effects that social disapproval have on people, as evidenced by his changing the water into wine and healing skin diseases that were probably something akin to psoriasis or eczema rather than leprosy. He knew that, often, life really is about the small stuff and that the small stuff is important. It is too bad that such a wise and compassionate man is obscured by theological pedantry like the trinity and blood atonement.
Anyway, if I could write my own prayer, it would be this:
Dear Lord, we pray
- For all people who have lost someone or something dear to them.
- For those who are unjustly imprisoned, that they may speedily regain their freedom.
- For victims of war and violence
- For anyone experiencing physical or emotional abuse and degredation, that they may be brought to a place of safety
- For all who have physically disfiguring conditions, that they may find medical help and loving acceptance from others
- For persons suffering from mental illness, that they may find understanding
- For all people with sleep disorders, that they may find relief.
- For the lonely, especially for single mothers and their children
- For abused and neglected children
- For all those tormented by past sins, that they may find peace.
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