“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on the inhabitants of a country in shadow dark as death light has blazed forth” (Isaiah 9: 1, The New Jerusalem Bible)

May there still be love and compassion
for a grieving world, all those suffering,

walking in a personal darkness,
inhabitants of that country in shadow

dark as death, a private, lonely place,
our personal wilderness, a silent place

of contemplative prayer, compassion
for our grief, our despair each morning.