This is a prayer by our much-loved Michael Leunig, an Australian prophet and cartoonist. It is quoted at the start of a book I'm reading with a group of women here. The book is "Not Religion but Love - practising a radical spirituality of compassion" by Dave Andrews.
"God help us. With great skill and energy, we have ignored the state of the human heart. With eloquence and wit we have belittled the heart's wisdom. With politics and economics we have denied the heart's needs. With science and technology we have drowned out the voice of the soul. The primitive voice - the innocent voice - the truth.
We cannot hear the heart's truth, and thus we have betrayed and belittled ourselves and pledged madness to our children...We have made for ourselves an unhappy society.
It is timely that we give thanks for the lives of all prophets, teachers, healers, and revolutionaries, living and dead, acclaimed or obscure, who have rebelled, worked, and suffered for the cause of love and joy. We also celebrate that part of us, that part of us within ourselves, which has rebelled, worked, and suffered for the cause of love and joy.
God help us to change. To change ourselves and to change our world. To know the need for it. To deal with the pain of it. To feel the joy of it. To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
That which is Christ-like within us shall be crucified. It shall suffer and be broken. And that which is Christ-like within us shall rise up. It shall love and create."
From A Common Prayer by Michael Leunig
(sherry)
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1 comment:
Thanks Geoff.....another gem from Leunig.....I still think often of the "Good Knight" poem that you gave to me.....it seems like Leunig is kind of the Oz equivalent of Gary Larson.......but it is so refreshing to hear a guy like this talk about following Jesus....the overturning of the status quo (both within us and outside of us), which I think is such a central part of new birth/conversion, is captures beautifully by this prayer.
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