Difficulties

Father,
You alone know all,
You alone know us and all our afflictions,
You prepare a table for us
before the face of these sightless enemies
who cry war when all we want is peace,
and to whom peace is only seeing us
defeated and destroyed.

Help us, Father, in this hour of trouble,
when Your family is in such need of salvation,
yet runs from it into the dark solitude where the evil one,
having despoiled the flock,
seeks the life of Your young ones, caught in his traps.

I can do nothing, Lord.
I can do nothing.
Even my prayer is only a moan,
yet You know my heart,
and let my afflictions drive me into the wilderness,
pursued by accusers shouting out crimes
I have never committed,
so that You alone exist for me.

All that You have given me,
I wanted to give back to You,
but not like this.
I wanted to give You not the one talent You entrusted to me,
but that and even more.
But even what little I thought I had has been taken from me.

Do not let the evil one have the upper hand, Lord.
Do not let him ravage the family You have planted.
Visit us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and dispel the hatred, the doubt, the accusations,
the delusions, the false hopes, the sickness of heart,
the unforgiving memory,
every evil thing that has come to nest like rats
in a forsaken ruin.

Deliver us,
let us call you again ‘our Father’ and deliver us,
from evil,
from the evil one,
from each other and from ourselves.

Let us wake in the morning, filled with Your love, 
and sing and be happy all our days.
Make our future as happy as our past was sad,
those years when You were punishing us,
those years when we were punishing ourselves.

Let Your servants see what You can do for them,
let their children see Your glory.

May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us!
Make all we do succeed.
(Psalm 90:14-17).

Yahweh, do not desert me,
do not stand aside, my God!
Come quickly to my help,
Lord, my Savior!
(Psalm 38:21-22).
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