January 21, 2022 — Spirit & Verse is a monthly column of original poem-prayers composed by Cameron Bellm, a Seattle-based writer and mother of two whose “Prayer for a Pandemic” went viral, bringing solace and comfort to many struggling during COVID-19.
“A Prayer for Sunday of the Word of God”
O Word that shapes our liturgies and litanies,
May we see you not as a dusty tome
But as a living invitation to an ongoing conversation.
O God who comes to us in sacred story,
May we find our own stories within your pages.
O Word that illuminates our darkness,
May we carry your light into the world.
O God who speaks into silence,
May we rest in the comfort of your voice.
O Word made flesh who dwells among us,
May we sense your presence with us on the road to Emmaus.
And when our hearts burn within us,
May we not only hear your Word, but speak it with our lives.
Amen.
Previous Spirit & Verse poem-prayers:
A Prayer for Advent 2021
Mary, Mother of Us All
A Prayer for World Day of Migrants and Refugees
A Prayer for Peace When the World is on Fire
A Prayer for the Ignatian Year
A Prayer for the Month of the Sacred Heart
A Prayer for Mary’s Month During a Pandemic
St. Joseph Prayer
A Prayer for Ash Wednesday
A Prayer for the Feast of the Epiphany
A Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
A Prayer for the Month of the Holy Souls
A Prayer for Living “Fratelli Tutti”
Our Lady of Sorrows
A Prayer for the Beginning of the School Year
A Prayer for the Feast of St. Ignatius
Cameron Bellm is a Seattle-based writer of prayers, poems, and devotionals. After completing her Ph.D. in Russian literature at the University of California, Berkeley, she traded the academic life for the contemplative life, informed by Ignatian spirituality and Catholic social teaching. She is the author of “A Consoling Embrace: Prayers for a Time of Pandemic” (23rd Publications, 2020). Cameron and her husband have two young sons, and, blessedly, playing with Legos often nurtures her spiritual life as much as reading the lectionary. You can find her at cameronbellm.com and on Instagram, @cameronbellm.