In the name

by  Pádraig Ó Tuama  (link)

The Lord be with you.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
In the name of goodness and love and broken community
In the name of meaning and feeling and I hope you don’t screw me
In the name of darkness and light and ungraspable twilight
In the name of meal times and sharing and caring by firelight
In the name of

 action and peace and human redemption
In the name of eating and drinking and table confession
In the name of sadness, regret, and holy obsession
The holy name of anger, the spirit of aggression
In the name of forgive and forget and I hope I get over this
In the name of Father and Son and the Holy Spirit
In the name of beauty and beaten and broken down daily
In the name of seeing our creeds and believing in maybe
We gather here, a table of strangers
And speak of our hope land and talk of our danger
To make sense of our thinking, to authenticate lives
To humanize feeling and stop telling lies
In the name of philosophy, theology, and who gives a damn
In the name of employment and study and finding new family
In the name of our passion, our loving, and indecent obsessions
In the name of prayer and of worship and of demon possession
In the name of solitude and quiet and holy reflection
In the name of the lost and the lonely and the without direction
In the name of efficiency, stupidity, and the holy ineffectual
In the name of the straight, the queer, transgendered, and bisexual
In the name of boot clogs and boob jobs and erectile disfunction
Schizophrenia, hysteria, and obsessive compulsion
In the name of Jesus and Mary and the mostly silent Joseph
In the name of speaking to ourselves saying this is more than I can cope with
In the name of touch up and break up and break down and weeping
In the name of therapy and Prozac and full hearted breathing
In the name of sadness and madness and years since I’ve smiled
In the name of the unknown, the alien, and the holy in exile
In the name of goodness and kindness and intentionality
In the name of harbor and shelter and family

Peter Rollins