Our God, cracked and torn is the womb of our land, cracked and torn is the womb that provides safety – the womb of our homes and dwellings, God, cracked and torn is the womb of our hearts!
Lord and God, may over this cracked and torn womb of our land, our cities, our dwellings, our hearts dawn the morning of proclamation. As at the beginning of the world Your Holy Spirit hovered over the darkness of wild chaos; and as at the fulfillment of time Your Holy Spirit descended upon a devastated world, upon a devastated Palestine, upon a devastated Old Covenant and also upon Mary, the last of a devastated and destroyed lineage: God, may the morning of proclamation dawn upon us!
We present to You our misery, we present to You our suffering, we present to You our tornness, we present to You our hearts that resist!
God, grant that with perfect openness and determination we accept Your life, we carry Your life, we give Your life from our misery, from our suffering, from our wretchedness, from our pains!
God, could we perhaps sense, could we perhaps believe, that You would want to bestow upon us at this hour the glory of Your most holy Mother and allow it to flow into our hearts?
God, we thank You in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our wretchedness and we ask with Your bride, we ask with Your Mother, we ask with her who has become within us the womb of the world, we ask: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your word.” – “My soul magnifies the Lord, for He has looked on the humility of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name!”
(Erich Przywara SJ /1889–1972/, Prayers of This Age, 25; during World War II)
