People, of course, are an inspiration in writing articles such as this on a regular basis - what they do, how they think and who they are. As is art, in all forms, especially songs. Donning headphones, I listened to a few different and stirring renditions of “The Prayer” with music by David Foster and lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager. David described this as “a song that I just never get tired of playing, I never get tired of hearing it. And it seems to mean a lot to a lot of people. It’s a powerful piece of music. I think it came through me and I think Carole’s lyric is beautiful. It was a moment—that song was a moment for sure.” CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE TO CONTINUE READING
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Digging in, I learned that the lyrics have been adapted by different artists, especially as the song moves between English and the Italian translation by Alberto Testa, and then back again. What hit me was just how relevant are the lyrics in its different versions to the two pandemics we all face today, and the plea to find safety. I pray you’ll be our eyes And watch us where we go And help us to be wise In times when we don’t know Let this be our prayer When we lose our way Lead us to a place Guide us with your grace To a place where we’ll be safe And, then, in a different version from the Italian translation: Let this be our prayer We dream of a world without violence A world of justice and hope Everyone take his neighbor’s hand Symbol of peace of fraternity The strength this gives us This is my prayer We turn to you Guide us with your grace So we’ll be safe The responsibility is clearly and squarely on us as humans – each and every one of us - to take the actions that we know need to be taken. This prayer is not passive, utter it then sit back and wait for a god to fix it or do it for us. Our work doesn’t end when we whisper ‘Amen”. The Prayer asks that we see clearly the wisdom of respecting each other as equal human beings and letting that wisdom guide us in how we think about, what we do and how we treat each other. So that we can all feel safe without having to give it a second thought. It’s not so much more faith in God we need right now, it’s faith in one another. There are many paths to gaining this wisdom, though in some it may be hard to see the touch of God’s grace. The crucial changes are there for each of us to make and the moment is now. Please let it be so, I pray. |