A Blessing for Ukraine

By Kate Bowler
http://katebowler.com

I listen to “Everything Happens” which is a podcast by Kate Bowler. She is a Canadian academic and writer from Winnipeg, Manitoba who is currently a professor of history at Duke Divinity School. She is currently in remission from colon cancer but, she is fragile and brings a truly deep and honest reflection on spirituality and “prosperity gospel” and a “how-to” on living life to the fullest, despite whatever comes your way. She is always curious and always exploring how better to understand herself and those around her. She is a true optimist who speaks against toxic positivity and understands what it means to be human. She has written several books and she writes many blessings.

This is her blessing for Ukraine…

A BLESSING FOR UKRAINE

God, the unthinkable has happened.

Swiftly, relentlessly,
by stealth and through open destruction,
the peace and beauty of the ordinary,
has been shattered in a day.

O God of justice and might,
We call to you to come and bring this suffering to an end.
Comfort these trembling hearts.
Shield the vulnerable.
Strengthen those with the resources and the resolve
to protect what they love
in the face of such overwhelming force.

Grant wisdom to the nations of our world, to our leaders, and to us,
to grasp the unfathomable,
to see evil in its true light,
and come against it unflinchingly.

Dear Ukraine,
though we shudder to watch what is happening
We will not look away.