Please Pray

A monster of a storm is heading into the Gulf. Please keep my family (Panama City Beach, Florida), these dear online friends, Cay, Colleen and Alice, the family of an IRL friend (Baton Rouge area, and throughout the coast of Mississippi), the city of New Orleans (where my brother lived and learned for four years) and all the people throughout the Gulf Coast that will be impacted by Gustav close in prayer through the next week. Cay posted this prayer the other day:

Prayer During Hurricane Season

O God, Master of this passing world, hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed your order and returned to its former quietude; you are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control.

The Gulf, like a provoked and angry giant, can awake from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster.

During this hurricane season, we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with the passing of time.

O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to plead with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a storm-less eternity awaits us.

Amen.