IN THE CENTER OF THIS TEEMING city, with the sights and sounds of a working city surrounding us, we utter a prayer for justice in the marketplace. We meet here to give support to working people who strive to support their families, who seek some semblance of security in their lives.
We are mindful of the cries of the prophets of every time and tradition, who have spoken about justice pouring down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. We are mindful of those courageous souls in every age and clime who have spoken truth to power. We are mindful of one prophet who so identified with the poor that he said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
In this center city space, we realize we are all neighbors – workers and management, rich and poor, city and suburb. We would seek, then, simply to be neighborly toward one another – treating our neighbors as ourselves, treating our neighbors as we would like to be treated – that justice might prevail.
The quest for justice is a lonely, hard road. We lift up our voices to pray for justice – that those of us who hunger might have bread, and that those of us who have bread might have the hunger for justice. Amen.
— Richard Gilbert in For Praying Out Loud: Interfaith Prayers for Public Occasions by L. Annie Foerster