WordsOut poems by Godfrey Rust  | sequence Prayers of hope 1 of 4 → | home       I 

birth

For this journey
bringing hope from heaven
to a spoiled world
we give thanks. 

Grant us a traveller’s hope—
a place to stay
furnished enough
for love to be born and live. 

For those we know
carrying a burden’s weight
towards an unknown conclusion
we pray tonight. 

For those we do not know
on journeys of despair
homeless or losing hope
we pray tonight.

Written to follow the reading of Luke 2, 1-7 in a series of visual "prayers of hope" in the carol service at St Johns, West Ealing in 2011, accompanied by visual images.