Wanted to give a brief update regarding my Wednesday night gig at the Network Coffee House on Pearl and 14th. I show up about 5:45pm to get the coffee going and take the chairs down. At 6pm about 30 of east Denver’s street community comes in the door and grabs their coffee and stakes their claim on a table. There’s the roar of the entry and then after about 20 minutes the room settles into a steady buzz of conversation with occasional barks from Dollar, Redneck, or Lucille, which are the dogs that hang out with us.
Last night was my 6th evening at Network and even in that short stint of time my soul has been formed and informed in some important ways. If you live elsewhere in this world and you here of Denver, your mind likely sends you images of a skier running down one of the Rocky Mountain resorts or maybe of the beer that comes from one of the great micro-breweries in this state or maybe you think of John Elway and the Broncos. But what we don’t think about (or perhaps try not to think about) is the fact that like any other city Denver has its street life, the “least of these” types that Jesus’ tends to be on about throughout the gospels.
The strangest drive of my week is coming back from the Network House about 9:30ish and pulling off of University Blvd. and into my neighborhood. As I pass the cozy homes with the warm glow coming from the living room windows I’m haunted by the contrast between that environment and my friends living under the interstate overpasses.
Anyway, I read this prayer last night as I settled back in and I found its words to pack a punch …
Prayer to the Holy Spirit...
Come Holy Spirit, breathe down upon our troubled world. Shake the tired foundations of our crumbling institutions. Break the rules that keep you out of all our sacred spaces, and from the dust and rubble, gather up the seedlings of a new creation.
Come Holy Spirit, enflame once more the dying embers of our weariness. Shake us out of our complacency. Whisper our names once more, and scatter your gifts of grace with wild abandon. Break open the prisons of our inner being, and let your raging justice be our sign of liberty.
Come Holy Spirit and lead us to places we would rather not go. Expand the horizons of our limited imaginations. Awaken in our souls dangerous dreams for new tomorrow, and rekindle in our hearts the fire of prophetic enthusiasm.
Come Holy Spirit, whose justice outwits international conspiracy, whose light outshines religious bigotry, whose peace can halt our patriarchal hunger for dominance and control, whose promise invigorates our every effort: to create a new heaven and a new earth, now and forever.
Amen
By Diarmuid O'Murchu (given to me by Wes)
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