A strange prayer

"Because we are practical people, driven toward effectiveness, we look for a solution to our many problems. Perhaps a key is given in the very word 'solutio' which in chemistry refers to the combination of several ingredients into a new mixture, each dying to its own substance. There is a natural resistance as I hold on to my exclusive story against a Larger Story. Usually we will not let go unless we are forced or wounded. In the mythologies of all the great world religions, the wounding is the passageway from the little world to the Transcendent World. The ego must be defeated before we will submit to the 'solutio,' before we will fit our small world into the Bigger Picture. If the wound leads us to this passing over, it is rightly called a sacred wound. If it leads me backwards to an entrenchment in my small protective ideas, the wound is more common embittering wound. Here, I am afraid, is where much of the world and the church lies festering and bleeding, embittered that life has caused us pain."

Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace

In that case, Papa, crack us open. Lead us gently to a safe wounding. But crack us open nevertheless.