In challenging times, we can comfort each other through words and by creating words that meet the moment. The Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, Kentucky have enfolded us in their healing embrace with an inspiring prayer. My gifted friend, writer, and editor Toby Stein, who received it from her rabbi, kindly shared it with me and I share it with you:

Prayer for a Pandemic

My we who are inconvenienced
remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
Remember those who must choose
Between preserving their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for
Our children when their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those who have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money
In the tumult of the economic market
Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for the quarantine at home
Remember those who have no home.
AS fear grips our country
Let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically
Wrap our arms around each other,
Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace
Of God to our neighbor.
Amen.

Comforting words crafted by the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, Kentucky. May they inspire us to use our own words to uplift others as we all write on.