Other Languages

   They were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages
   as the Spirit gave them ability.
   -- Acts 2:4

Holy Spirit, loosen our tongues and teach us
new languages of love.
Help us to convey your grace across the divides of language,
and culture and race and class and identity.
Put the breath of love in our lungs,
the words of mercy on our tongues,
the songs of grace on our lips.
Help us give voice to blessing
that is clear in any language.
Give us grace to listen to every foreign tongue,
respect every foreign story, and honor every foreign soul,
for you have sent us to them,
so they may know their own belovedness,
and they may reveal to us our own.
Spirit of God, breathe in us.
Spirit of love, sing in us.
Spirit of justice, rise in us to do your will.

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net, May 28, 2020