You,
Our Light and our Bread,
Our Way and our Word,
We come before you,
Bringing different realities – yet marching to the same rhythm – andante.
We hail from the East, we live in the West,
At home in the North, we dwell in the South.
Different yet united,
Sisters to each other,
Your daughters.
We come before you with pride
Wearing it like a lovely garment.
Pride in what we have achieved,
Proud that having recognised our strength,
We dared to walk new paths,
And worked whole-heartedly for a more humane world.
We carry before you our joy
Like a colourful balloon.
Joy in what we have experienced.
The smiles of the children as they listen to our stories.
The gladness of the old as we visit them,
The gratitude of the refugees as we show them our concern.
Joy over all the small steps and vibrant relationships,
Joy over the variety, energy and imagination of women
Who move things on,
Face every-day life, and make our world a home.
We come before you with gratitude
Like a joyful song.
We give thanks for our experiences,
We are grateful for being listened to,
For being encouraged in many ways,
For being supported materially and in thought and prayer.
We are grateful for being allowed to make mistakes,
And to build on the strength of our mothers and grandmothers
Who acted before us.
We give thanks for your care and love for us.
We bring before you our pain
Like a heavy stone.
Pain because of what we suffer:
The poverty of women,
The dignity that they are denied,
The hurt caused by the prejudices of their church.
The lack of care for your creation,
The unfulfilled needs of those at the margins,
The lack of work for the young,
The dearth of new and fresh ideas.
We bring before you our dreams
Like a branch in blossom.
Dreams of what we hope for.
Happy children, equal rights for women, stable families, a safe home for the aged.
A Church, which takes account of the reality and dreams of women and men.
A society that lives in solidarity,
A just world,
Life in its fullness for all.
You have thought us into existence,
God,
And with our beginning you have put a precious thought into the world.
We were in your dream,
Upright and free, lovely and glad.
You have created us,
Endowed us with love and with hope and entrusted us with responsibility.
You have smiled at us and whispered softly in our ears,
That we stand tall, that we are good.
Thank you for your trust, which accompanies us,
Thank you for your goodness, germinating what we sow,
And your blessing which brings it to harvest.
So that people, both in the greater Europe and in their own small daily lives, will recognise: here lives and acts a new humanity.
You,
Our Light and our Bread,
Our Way and our Word,
We come before you,
Bringing different realities – yet marching to the same rhythm – andante.
We hail from the East, we live in the West,
At home in the North, we dwell in the South.
Different yet united,
Sisters to each other,
Your daughters.
Jacqueline Keune, Lucerne (original in German, translated by Sr. Maria Dinnendahl SHCJ)
