A communal prayer of confession prayed at Campamento El Guacio with Young Adult Volunteer alums; San Sebastián, Puerto Rico, December 2018.

God who calls us together,

We fall into the ways of the world, letting fear and greed be our motivators, and forgetting that you teach us another way.

God of hope, have mercy on us as we work for a more merciful world.

We come to you as people who have been hurt, but also as people who have done the hurting. When the hard road of reconciliation is in front of us,

God of peace, have mercy on us as we work for a more merciful world.

When the weight of the world’s grief feels too heavy, we forget that you are a God who celebrates too. In marching bands and confetti skies and tables full of food,

God of joy, have mercy on us as we work for a more merciful world.

Many of us come from colonizing, from claiming land and people as our own and forgetting that, since long before our beginning, all the earth is yours.

God of love, have mercy on us as we work for a more merciful world. Amen.