God, you who are good. You are the one who brings the good wine to the celebration; you are the one who reveals yourself to those who are invisible and nameless.
You are the one who leaves the party and walks among the servants, working at the edges.
Grant us the grace to recognize your presence in our midst, even when you show up in ways that are unexpected.
May we, like the servants at the wedding of Cana, say “yes” to you, to your invitation.
May we be people, among those to whom it is said, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Some of us, our arms are tired from refilling empty water jugs.
Others of us are wet and cold—we’ve been splashed and dumped on in the midst of the work.
Others don’t know what we’re doing, or why, yet we follow your words.
And there are some of us who watch and wait in faith and hopeful anticipation—not knowing what will happen, but knowing you are you.
In all of our created-ness, with its gifts and limitation,
As we work with others, who are also created in your image,
Help us as we bump into each other, jostle, and fill…
Help us to see, through you….
We do not presuppose to see as you see…for you alone are God.
But help us to see through you, through the Holy Spirit,
What you want us to see, in our communities, in our ministries, in our families.
Grant us the grace, when the time comes,
When the big risk arises,
When you say, “Take a cup to ….”
That we would embrace the mystery, the unknown.
That would we operate in the dependence upon your supernatural intervention.
That we would be a part of the renewing of our communities, the renewing of our ways of being and of doing.
That as you upend “the old way things are done,”
As you impart your holy gift and revelation to the unknown, the unnamed, and the unseen,
As you introduce your new economy,
As you reveal yourself, not to your “holy religious ones” but to the ones that the world says have “dirty hands,”
Grant us the grace to be awake to you, to say “yes” to you,
And to be with you.
This prayer was written for the Rethinking:Church project–a community trying to reimagine what the Church could be. During her presentation, she references Sadao Watanabe’s print “Wedding at Cana.”
