A Prayer for Yom Hashoah

(photo: Margaret Bourke-White)

Oh, Spirit of mercy,
whose presence dwells
in the highest heights
and the darkest depths:

Shelter the souls
of all who were oppressed and murdered
during the years of the Shoah.

May the memory of those who were
singled out, persecuted and destroyed
be sanctified for goodness
and for peace:

Jews, gays, lesbians
and political dissidents;
communists, socialists,
labor leaders and Soviet prisoners of war;
resistance fighters, Roma,
Freemasons and Jehovah’s Witnesses;
the disabled of mind and body;
the homeless, the unemployed
and the unwanted…

May all who were once left vulnerable
remain protected beneath the soft wings of your presence
that they may rest in peace.

Spirit of Compassion,
help us to mourn their loss in such a way
that our fears and our hopes will become indistinguishable
from the fears and the hopes of all who are oppressed.

Help us turn isolation into wholeness,
division into fellowship
and bitterness into healing waters of liberation
for all humanity.

Amen.