Monday, October 11, 2021

Prayer for All

Nicholas Black Elk

Nathan shared this prayer with us some time ago. On this day that we commemorate all Indigenous People of this land, I thought it most appropriate. I encourage you to look deeper into the life of Nicholas Black Elk. God is big.

Grandfather, Great Sacred One,

you have been always.

and before you nothing has been.

There is nothing to pray to but you.

The star nations all over the universe are yours,

and yours are the grasses of the earth.

Day in and day out, you are the life of things.

You are older than all in need,

older than all pain and prayer.

Grandfather, all over the world

the faces of the living ones are alike.

In tenderness they have come up

out of the ground.

Look upon your children

with children in their arms,

that they may face the winds,

and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

Teach me to walk the soft earth,

a relative to all that live.

Sweeten my heart and fill me with light,

and give me the strength to understand

and the eyes to see.

Help me, for without you I am nothing.

Amen.