Prayer #115: Sotto Voce

Why do sore throats strike when you have the most to say?

My current muteness was inevitable, I suppose, after ten days of kissing strange people, gabbing nonstop, and inhaling stale airplane air. Still, it's inconvenient, seeing as I want to relive my trip through constant retellings.

And then to go to church for Pentecost yesterday, and hear the Bible passage about everyone understanding each other's language, yet not be able to speak or sing with the congregation ... major downer.

So I just closed my eyes instead and listened to all the voices combining around me. And I prayed this prayer.

Prayer #115: Sotto Voce

Santo Spirito --

When my voice is weakest, all the more reason to shout Your praises from the rooftops, for You have reversed the curse of Babel!

You have shown us that the human predilection to develop language (nearly 7,000 spoken ones at last count) does not surpass our ability to be understood. You have granted us comprehension, and through it, solidarity.

Love is not foreign, but universal, the indestructible mortar for a universal church. Help us be the bricks for a new tower -- one that reaches You in the heavens -- and give us one voice to sing as we build.

Amen.