Matriarch Voices: Longing for mercy, 4th Sunday after Pentecost, Interfaith prayer for Justice and Peace, VF147
Hagar in the desert, Marc Chagall
Voices Found #147
Refrain:
There is a longing in our hearts, O Lord,
for you to reveal yourself to us.
There is a longing in our hearts for love
we only find in you, our God.
For justice, for freedom, for mercy: hear our prayer.
In sorrow, in grief:
Be near, hear our prayer, O God.
Refrain
For wisdom, for courage, for comfort, hear our prayer.
In weakness, in fear:
Be near, hear our prayer, O God.
Refrain
For healing, for wholeness, for new life: hear our prayer.
In sickness, in death:
Be near, hear our prayer, O God.
Refrain
Lord save us, take pity, light in our darkness.
We call you, we wait:
Be near, hear our prayer, O God.
Words and music: Anne Quigley
Quigley's chant, expressing Hagar's plea for God's love and revelation, is a short litany sung by choir or cantor and congregation. It is powerful at a gathering. As an interfaith it unites Jews, Christians, and Muslims, chanting to God, begging for mercy, justice, and peace.
For the full text and accompaniment please see
https://www.churchpublishing.org/products/voicesfound2
Genesis 21:13-21
.13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.’ 14So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, ‘Do not let me look on the death of the child.’ And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.18Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ 19Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
.13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.’ 14So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, ‘Do not let me look on the death of the child.’ And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.18Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ 19Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. 21He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
As President of The Women's Sacred Music Project,Hagar
“Mah lakh, Hagar? What troubles you, Hagar?”
I am Hagar, Hajar, the rejected one. My name speaks my fate: Hagira, the Outsider; Hajira, the Wanderer.
I am an empty waterskin, a borrowed womb.
“Slave of Serai, where have you come from? And where are you going?”
I am known only by the conflicts I engendered. I am Israel’s faithful shadow – Egyptian, Canaanite, Arab. My grandsons still snap at Jacob’s heels.
“Cast out that slave-woman and her son!”
I am forever cast down. Ha-g’rusha, the one-cast-out. As mother to Abraham’s first-born son, I usurped her place, and she brought me low.
“Mahlakh, Hagar? What troubles you, Hagar?”
Ibrahim left me with my infant son thirsting in a dry valley near Mecca. If not for the miracle of the Zamzam well we would have died. Pilgrims still honor me at Hajj, racing between bare hills, crying out, “Slake my thirst! Save me! See me!” But my name is invisible in your Holy Book.
I named the One who spoke to me “El-ro’i”, the God of Seeing, the One who saw me. One day I will fly home on Al-Buraq to the well where I was seen, where God listened to a mother’s voice. Yishma-el, Isma’il, Where tears became the arrow that pierced a father’s heart.
And she called the Lord who spoke to her; God opened her eyes, and she saw the One who sees us. Quick, Hagar! Fly home on Al-Buraq, the magic steed! Lead us where we can be seen!
From the "Women of Valor suite," by Andrea Clearfield, libretto by Ellen Frankel
Comments
Post a Comment