Rev. Vanessa Titang

Tag: human rights

  • A Prayer for Peace

    A Prayer for Peace

    I have been quiet as yet on the Palestine and Israel conversation being had globally amidst the violence of Hamas attacks and Israel’s response. This is not because I have no thoughts on the matter, but rather because from what I knew, I have not had enough to speak to what is currently happening. I have since done my research. And like so many, I am still lost by the tangle of helplessness my hands make, as I ask, “What can be done?”

    I am often frustrated at the prospect of resorting to prayers alone. Alas, that is not all that is being done in prayer – throwing up our hands. No, it is also a means of working through complex realities to discern what these frustrated hands can, in fact, do for the better, and to call on hope.



    A Prayer for Peace
    (10-16-2023)

    I pray for peace.
    I pray for the Palestinians wanting freedom in their homeland,
    For their safety,
    I pray for the Israeli people
    Too wanting safety in the home where they are,
    I pray for the means of peaceful resolution
    To complicated matters
    Only further complicated by more harm done,
    May the people of this holy place
    Find mercy and means
    Of coming together,
    In resolution
    For the human right
    Of peace.

  • Blessed, When the World Has Fallen Apart

    Blessed, When the World Has Fallen Apart

    (Reflection on a blessing from a Nigerian Chief, given Juneteenth 2022, in Maine)

    The world has fallen apart

    Though this is not the first time,

    It is just one of the times

    where it is all too much;

    Intentionally crafted

    By mortal powers that be.

    Not ordained by divinity.

    Weakened,

    But not dead

    I remind myself.

    And yesterday I was again reminded

    Of ancestors

    Who have been tasked similarly.

    What is next?

    What do I do now?

    When my back has been given

    Far too much weight

    To bare;

    When the final straw is placed?

    I did not know what I needed,

    Until it was before me,

    A spirit of power and memory,

    Backlit by the warm glow of summer sun,

    A masked figure,

    Familiar to family I do not know,

    And my predecessors,

    Speaking in a language I do not know,

    But understood.

    The slow, careful sound of ankle bells  

    And a motion to come forth,

    Welcomed me in,

    And back,

    Back,

    Back,

    In time and space,

    Back.

    This has happened before,

    And here

    we are;

    Still.

    A blessing given

    Of memory,

    Of protection,

    Of our shared connection,

    I cannot know the intention,

    But I felt it

    We all felt it.

    Let us not forget;

    Never forget,

    This moment,

    Or all that brought us

    Here—in time and space.

    Remembering

    Past, present

    And that

    we are not done,

    –This is always just beginning.

    We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams,

    May we be our descendants’ bravest heroes,

    keepers of the flame,

    Knowing we are the ones we have been waiting for,

    Thus,

    let’s go!