Holy Father, I am a man of unclean lips from an unclean nation,
and we have set about to prove, again, our uncleanness in multifarious ways.
We acknowledge, again, our complete lack of merit
For the grace of this land.
This beautiful land, and her people, suffer the winds of heat and fire.
Where are the hands of husbandmen who till goodness and build wisdom?
Where are the tapestries of they who wait on the Virgin Mother,
Who nurture beauty and peace?
Thou, Lord, in Thy wrath,
hast granted our demands instead.
Thou hast given us boys to be our princes,
and babes to rule over us.
Thou hast allowed every man to oppress his fellow,
and every man his neighbor.
The youth are insolent to the elder,
and the base fellow to the honorable.
Indeed, Lord, there is no honor for the base to be recognized.
Indeed, Lord, we have said in every plebiscite,
On every side of what we call "debate,"
"You have a mantle:
you shall be our leader,
and this heap of ruins
shall be under your rule."
And Lord what do they say today in the vaunted halls,
in the land of masonic obelisks and the graves of the brave?
What do they say in the echo-chambers of the house
of the Prince of the Air?
"I will not be a healer"
(though I will bask in power and take my pay)
"In my house there is neither bread nor mantle"
(at least, not bread for the poor, nor the mantle of morality)
"You shall not make me leader of the people"
(at least, not a leader who stands for wisdom,
and certainly not for the people of the land)
For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen:
Again,
This time in our self-styled
"City on the hill."
And why?
Again,
"Their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
defying His glorious presence."
Thou, Lord, hast shut the minds of our leaders from wisdom,
They who are neither healers nor peacemakers,
They who care little for the widow, the orphan and the dispossessed,
Who move the property stones of the weak
And spurn the democracy of the dead.
They have reaped the antipathy of the grave
and are rendered mute and soiled
by the tumult of fools.
What shall we pray Lord?
For Thou hast forbidden us to curse.
So how shall we bless them Lord?
For I do not know how to exorcise
in a time of fools.
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