Dr. Devoree Clifton Crist - Spirit Prayers: Praying Through the Pandemic and Social Unrest

Copyright 2020 by Devoree Clifton Crist

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2020

ISBN

Cover Illustration Copyright 2015

by Devoree Crist

Cover and Book design

by Mehalet KesateBirhan

Chapter illustrations

by Devoree Crist

Author photograph by Owen Gerald Crist

Paintings are pastels on paper, 2020

Color versions of the illustrations

may be found on the authors website.

http://www.spiritualdirectioninwg.net

Spirit Prayers

I dedicate this book to the memory of my incredible parents

Gerald Joseph Clifton and Beatrice Mary Clifton,

who taught me about prayer, compassion and respect,

and how to navigate this world.

Their love and wisdom formed me,

and I miss them very much.

I offer gratitude to God for the many wonderful people

who have helped me in the preparation of this book.

Thank you to the Rev. Maren Tirabassi for counsel,

for reading the manuscript and for kind words

and encouragement along the way.

Thanks to Rev. Dr. Clint McCann

for his ongoing support and for being a reader.

I thank Ms. Mehalet KesateBirhan for willingness

to work with me again on a book project.

The layout and cover design are wonderful.

I thank my daughter, Ms. Teresa Crist for proofreading

the manuscript, loving support, and adding humor

to make my work lighter.

I must also thank my family for encouraging me

to keep writing and painting.

These things have helped me greatly

during this time of pandemic.

Special thanks to pastors Rev. Dr. Jacquelyn Foster and

Rev. Clyde Crumpton for taking time out of their

insanely busy schedules to read the book

and offer thoughtful and helpful comments.

I am so happy that my first book Spirit Prayers:

Invitations to Worship for Home or Faith Community, has been so well received. I have received positive feedback about it from both clergy and church leaders and from persons who used it as a personal devotional book.

On March 11, 2020 when the city of St Louis issued a social distancing order, we had only heard of one or two cases of Covid-19 in the whole metro area. Shortly thereafter, with rapid spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 across the world and in the United States of America, we found ourselves sheltering in place with cities in lock-down.

Our congregation, like many others, closed the doors to the church building and went to work looking for ways to remain open while socially distanced. We moved online and met virtually using social media and telecommunications software such as Zoom. It afforded us the opportunity to remain open, to gather as community, and to continue the work of the church in education, preaching and sharing in sacrament, and service. It has been a challenging several months, but the blessings have been many. We found that the only thing that closed for us was our building. The spirit of community was alive. As we worshipped together with a sister congregation we learned that though we missed the intimate setting and physical proximity to our members, there was a sense of belonging and true community that transcended physical closeness. It is different to be sure but in finding this way to stay connected we also found that we are connected more broadly with others.

We have seen an increase in people joining us from a distance.

One way we extended our community time together was by sharing daily prayers. At first the request was to publish online prayers from my book. I offered a few but I soon found that I was called to listen and receive the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures to help us through this difficult time. Scripture offers us so much. We can find within the pages comfort and guidance for living in the world. Spirit Prayers was based on the common lectionary texts used by my pastor or myself in our corporate worship. Spirit Prayers 2 is a response to this very confusing and difficult time of pandemic and social unrest. The prayers you find in this book are a collection of the prayers written for this purpose. The texts are those placed upon my heart from past experience or which were made known to me in reading or heard from various sources that spoke to me. Some of the texts were beloved texts that I go to whenever I need comfort or courage; some were found in the lectionary for that day; others were gifted to me by the Holy Spirit. After reflecting on each text, I wrote a prayer and posted it for the congregation. The scripture verses spoke directly to concerns I was having, to worries and fears I was hearing in my ministry, and to anxiety and uncertainty we are experiencing day to day as a country and in the world.

This virus is mysterious, not fully understood, and highly contagious. It has spread throughout the world and in the United States from the coasts inward. Cases plateaued but after we began to emerge from shut-down, it has surged and shows no indication of stopping. Some are hopeful that vaccines may become available by the end of the year but currently we are setting records for daily numbers of cases reported and concomitant numbers of deaths are continually on the rise. Our time sheltering in place brought about even more concerns, uncertainties and fears. We are still getting mixed messages from our leadership making the situation more chaotic.

In the midst of all of this there is a very frightening disparity among those getting the serious form of the disease. It is disproportionately high in minority populations. The cover has been thrown off underlying racism that has been present in our country since before its founding. The realization of this situation in the dominant culture has caused our country to step back finally and take a good look at injustice. Black and brown people in our country have been sounding the alarm for 400 years but today it appears that people in general are actually paying attention and reacting to the inequities exposed by the virus and captured video of injustices, especially those accompanied by violence that cannot be unseen.

These situations, this stark unveiling of a hard truth, have led to very strong emotional hyperactivity, a pouring out of feelings, tossing us up and down and side to side, some coming all at once.

These prayers are a response to all of this. Scripture has always been a source of steadying, comfort, promise and strength. Scripture provides an outlet for anger, hurt and sadness. I can always find something to soothe my soul. Writing prayers has been one source of centering for me, keeping me calm and energized for the work I do. It is my hope that these texts and prayers might provide hope, comfort, and peace or perhaps be an entry point for your own deep reflection.