We send a prayer to begin again

Long ago when You created man
What was Your master plan?
Eternally destined for damnation
Or generously graced with Your salvation?

Modern armies wage ancient war
Carrying on our tradition of horror.
Age and time grant no sanity
Only earthly proof of our inhumanity.

Weary of Your children’s plight
Life’s struggle seemingly too hard to fight
Bodies ravaged with blight and dearth
Call into question man’s own worth

Brotherly love seems only an illusion
Malice and hate’s constant delusion
Can’t You hear Your children crying
As they watch each other dying

No religion, no nation, no race
Are exempt from this fateful disgrace
Of the remnants of our past
Of the atrocities that last

The arrogance of the day
So confident of having found the way
How much have we really changed?
Or have we just become more estranged?

Take us in Your arms
Protect us from life’s harms
For we can’t pay for the loss
Of our hope hung from the cross

How many times will we fail You
Before you say we’re through
Eternally stained with original sin
We send a prayer to begin again