For Keith Porter, Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and every human who has been abducted, tortured, murdered, or maimed by the government.

Universal Love: we are calling on you.
Help us to find You within ourselves,
To find our courage and stalwart resolve,
The fierce protector energy that refuses to permit harm,
Refuses to be cowed by the pressure tactics of the wicked,
Will not stand by while the innocent are killed, maimed, and traumatized.

We have been comfortable.
Toxically comfortable - addicted to our ease, even as it costs the lives of the most vulnerable.
We have been permissive.
Permissive of evil in our midst, our politics, governance, and economy.
We have been apathetic.
Calloused toward the voices calling from the margins of our society.
We have been fearful.
Afraid to face the realities of the day with any meaningful risk-taking.
We have been inattentive
Unwilling to pay attention to the evil creeping up on our society.

We know that, even if we didn’t vote for this regime or actively bring it to pass,
We are all connected.
Our collective shadow is being show to us in the most stark and truthful of ways:
Criminals and clowns in power,
Babies jailed,
Mothers slaughtered in broad daylight,
For-profit prisons benefitting from terrorism,
Immense wealth inequity, struggle, and hunger,
Protestors and resisters tortured, gassed, and beaten,
And lawless masked police terrorizing our streets.

We know that the bill for centuries of greed
Is now coming due.
We lament how far we have fallen;
We grieve our collective inaction.
We lament the murders that have been done in the name of our country by institutions in power.
And grieve the loss of life, trauma, and lawlessness to which we are bearing witness.

This of us who follow the Christ know:
This is a table he would have turned upside down.

Now, grant us the courage to put our shoulders to the plow of justice,
The resolve to do without comfort for a time,
The discipline to follow through with direct economic action,
The clarity to do what is needed until the job is done,
The humility to organize and work together
The determination to not give over to evil…

So that we may send a message to those in power:
We are awake.
We are powerful.
We stand in the greatness of those who have gone before us to change the world for the better.
We want justice.
We are not afraid of the Truth.

In humility and courage we pray and intend for a new world
One built upon a foundation of Divine Love.

Amen

Here is a prayer for those detained and harassed by ICE. It’s also for us who haven’t been directly detained or persecuted, or at least for any of us who take to heart the instruction from the Christ to “love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute” us and our siblings. Which is something we wouldn’t ask direct victims to do, but which we who aren’t directly affected can practice In solidarity with all persecuted people, for the good of the whole world and the peace and restoration of all things.

Divine Love, Universal Consciousness, All That Is:

We pray for those who have been unjustly detained by a corrupt arm of our government.
May they be protected, strengthened, comforted, and liberated.
May they be healed; may they come to thriving, abundance, and a life free from worry.
May they go about their lives free from illegal and unjust detention and harrassment.
May the corrupt plans of masked men claiming to be government operatives
be thwarted at every turn.

May there be an end to the actions of these masked men, and an end to the injustices they perpetrate upon people going about their business in our country.
May this corruption meet a swift end.
May those in power over these organizations quickly realize their error, harm, and bigotry, and turn from evil.
May healing come to those harmed.

Enlarge our ability to practice compassion for these masked agents - compassion for people who’ve been brainwashed by a toxic culture, who have been taught that power is only wielded with weapons and force, and who are perhaps so desperate for a paycheck that they would stoop to terrorizing children.
We do not condone their actions, but we are practiced enough to see the divine spark hidden within even the most corrupt humans among us.

Let the influence of awake and enlivened people get through to them.
May the peace and love we cultivate within ourselves be so potent and contagious and winsome,
that it spreads, even to ICE, even to the fear-mongering politicians behind ICE.
And especially to the victims of ICE.

We know that to rule by fear is to constantly live in fear of losing power - they are scared.
We know that fear won’t win, but love will!
And so we practice our love, over and over, daily with every breath until it is so large within us that encompasses even our enemies and oppressors, even the most distorted and corrupted among us, that it sweeps up their victims in a healing wave,
that it cancels their wrong-doing and restores the harmed to wholeness.

We look forward to the day when ICE raids are again unfathomable.
We look forward to the day that corruption is out of power.
We look forward to the day when all who dwell in this country can live in peace and freedom,
and all who are desperate and needy are satisfied.
That day is coming.
That day lives in us.

Amen