A Coronavirus Prayer

A Coronavirus Prayer

-Written while praying for Ellen who is hospitalized in New York City with COVID-19, and reflecting on John 11

Looking at the world through eyes of compassion

Heart open wide to embrace what is broken

Seeing the beauty, tragedy, hope

Your beloved one is sick

Eyes welling up with tears

streaming down

growing puffy and red

How many days with the fever?

Chest tight, dry cough, struggle to breathe?

Weak, oxygen low

It’s time to admit

To the hospital

To the fear

To the loneliness

To the helplessness

To the desperate need for you

Yes, you wept

Wept with your friends

“See how you love her”

“See how you love him”

Every time I hear the word ventilator 

I will weep with you

Weary from sorrow

Heart strained by love

This will be my prayer

Sharing your heart

Tender compassion

© Dale Gish 2020. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Rogier van der Weyden -Descent From The Cross