Praying with the Righteous

Lord, those who assisted

all the wounded of existence,

all the injured, famished, rejected,

those people, without knowing it,

It was You, your self, that they rescued.

It was You, yourself, that they pulled

out of solitude and out of the horror,

yes, You, in your universal incarnation,

in your immense and crucified body,

your body that they helped to resurrect.

And so, without realizing it,

it was any man of sorrow

who was for them the Man of Sorrows,

like a sacrament of God.

And as for those who ignored the others,

or even pushed them further into their distress,

did they never ever feel a twitch of pity?

Have you not taken them on as well?

                  Olivier Clément, Orthodox theologian