All Saints’ Haiku (hope of the great cloud of witnesses)

I know this is a selfish prayer and poem, yet I pray it anyway.

Giusto de’ Menabuoi (Italian, ca. 1320–1391), Paradise, ca. 1378.

Dome fresco, Padua Baptistery, Italy.

All Saints’ Haiku

On days like this, when

discouragement hangs like fog,

I need their cheering.

Yes, I know on this day the Church remembers all those who have gone before us. It’s supposed to take us outside of ourselves – our pettiness, our selfishness, our fears, our wants, our faults and failures – as we remember that we belong to an ancient, on-going, and eternal story. In this we have encouragement and in this we find hope.

Today, though, I’m sad, wrestling discouragement, missing people who have died, and feeling disconnected from others. So this is the prayer that found it’s way out of the pen and onto the paper.

I share it here, not to gain sympathy, but maybe to give words to others who might be feeling similarly and not know how to hope or pray into that feeling.

May God bless you to know that God hears you and cares for you. May you know that you never walk (or sit or cry or run away) alone. Alleluia. Amen.