Lord, Giver of life and whose Spirit moves in and through our every breath,
remember in your kindness the young man who despaired of this world
and who longed for a better world.
Sadness fills our heavy hearts because he became lost in this lost world
and we could not find him soon enough.
You gave him to us with a tender kiss of life from your lips, an innocent child,
your image and likeness alive in his face, a life to be loved and to give love,
a dream for him that you held close to your heart,
asking us to help you with the dream of who he would become.
Yet, we failed you and we failed him in ways too many and many unknown to us.
He found the days too long and the nights too painful.
Too many too the fights he had to fight, soul-wearied and worn by wars.
He found struggles while others seemed to find satisfaction,
a battle without end until he saw only darkness and doubts and despair in the depths of his heart.
He looked for strength in so many places, and the search became long and lonely.
In the end he found himself lost in a desert.
Forgive us the times we did not hear his cry or heard his cries and dismissed them.
Pardon our blindness when he spoke of demons, but we could not see them.
Show mercy to us, Lord, who showed less mercy in our rush to judge him
and who found faults in him that we failed to find in ourselves.
We beg you, Lord, give comfort to him whom we did not comfort as we should have;
and welcome him into your loving arms in a world far better than ours
and into arms far gentler than those of this world.
Give him the peace your Son promised.
Help us in our grief and comfort us in our loss,
for our hearts are broken and today our tears are many.
One day, we pray, you will find fit to reunite us in your heavenly house,
where all memories are washed clean in the light of your love,
and where all your children dance and rejoice in your presence
with new life, with new love, and with a renewed spirit.
Until that day and until that new world, stay with us and show us a better way to live in this world,
the way of life, the way of love, the way of compassion for the stranger in our midst.
We ask this, in your name, Good Shepherd of the lost sheep
and Good Samaritan of all those wounded in and by this world.
Amen.
— Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 