I offered this prayer on Thanksgiving at the picket line for striking nursing home workers who work for Infinity Health Care Management. Over seven hundred frontline, majority black and brown workers from the Greater Chicago area called for a strike on November 23 after months of bargaining in which management repeatedly ignored their calls for pandemic pay, proper PPE, adequate staffing and living wages.

Click here to learn how you can lend your support to these courageous workers, whose struggle is literally a struggle for their very lives.

May the One who blessed our ancestors,
bless all those who put themselves at risk to care
for the elderly, ill and infirm.

Bless the health care workers,
the nurses and orderlies,
bless those who navigate the unfolding dangers
of the world each day
to tend to those they have sworn to help.

Bless them as they go to their work,
bless them in their coming home.
Ease their fear. Sustain them.
Source of all breath, healer of all beings:
protect them and restore their hope.
Strengthen them, that they may bring strength;
keep them in health, that they may bring healing.

And bless them in their struggle, 
in their just demand for fair wages,
as they are forced to work without pandemic pay 
in the midst of a pandemic,
even as they put their lives on the line every day
to take care of our most vulnerable family members.

Strengthen their resolve, and strengthen ours 
as we stand with them in their fight for just wages, 
which is a fight for their very lives.
Help them know again a time 
when they can breathe without fear. 

May this plague pass from among us, 
speedily and in our days. 

And let us say,
Amen.