Intercession

(a prayer to God on behalf of mankind)

You healed the sick and cured leprosy,
You gave the blind recovery of sight,
The dead were raised, the lame could walk upright.
Like blessings I'd bear to humanity.

Proclaiming, for the captive, liberty,
I pray for torture victims, the oppressed
Whom you came to release, peacemakers blessed,
For prisoners of conscience especially,

The dispossessed, the homeless, refugees,
Asylum-seekers, the immigrant family,
Friends to the Truth, victims of slavery,
Exploited workers and war's casualties.
…

The blood of innocents, how plaintively
Against the sons of Cain, whose work appalls
From earth to Heaven, for intervention calls,
In which cause may I muscle manfully.

The widow wronged, who so relentlessly
Against injustice pled, I now recall
To pray that framing prosecutors fall
With all false witness in complicity.
…

As for mankind, seeing the thievery
Of false prime ministers and presidents
And gain extorted at public expense,
Guard us from governmental knavery.

O Lord, dost thou not hear their blasphemy?
Thunder from Heaven, O consuming fire,
With cherubim ablaze, awakened ire,
Soaring on wind, darkness thy canopy.

Behold! Apocalyptic infamy
Works in the land. I would from housetop shout
To strip from wickedness its veil devout
And patriotism masking treachery.

See! Perpetrators of atrocity
In secret scheme, make stratagems for spoil,
But thou, whose night is noon, their plots may foil.
Bring down their overlording tendency.

Whether democracy or monarchy
Best serves our right, I do not know,
But however we organize, bestow
Thy reign of Justice and divinity.

Care for the weaker nations jealously
When, showing contempt for international law,
The powers, by acts that History shall deplore,
Would strip the people's rights rapaciously.
…

Though empire trades in wanton butchery
And every manner of barbarity,
Bring down its workers of iniquity,
Destroy its strongholds of hypocrisy.
…

You witness, too, corporate mendacity,
The vicious mechanisms underhand
To cheat, deceive, confuse, misunderstand.
You see each self-served, hate-filled industry,

Each self-aggrandizing monopoly,
Each lobby group corrupting greedily,
Each CEO dealing deceitfully,
Each politician gaining craftily.

The perjuring insurance companies,
The agencies accepting bribery,
The contractors serving the military,
Demolish all these wicked entities.

And, knowing their talent for inconstancy,
Dismantle and dismember these dissemblers,
Disperse, defuse them, so that from the embers
No-one arise to forge a new assembly.
…

Environment

Nor let none poison with impunity
Our food, water supplies, our air or earth,
Nor decimate creatures you brought to birth,
But guard the world's treasured diversity.
…

Preserve thy landscapes to posterity,
The oceans, rivers, mountains, forests, lakes,
Lest, left to his devices, man forsakes
His heritage and Nature's sanctity.

The valiant efforts of NRDC
Nurture, encourage, prosper, with Greenpeace,
Friends of the Earth, and their allies increase,
Supported by donors sufficiently.

In pastures green, where birds chant melody,
Beside quiet waters, wilderness pristine,
Lead me, O Lord, amid thy scenes serene,
For thy name's sake and my soul's remedy.

May 2004