Prayers of Women in Scripture
Imagined from their perspectives
For the Misunderstood.
Eve: Genesis 2:25, 3
Creator God,My friend who walked beside me,
The artist who designed the beauty around and within me,
I miss you. I long for our closeness again.
I grieve the shame, fear, and disquiet that now lies within my heart.
A heart touched by sin, a mouth stained by forbidden fruit,
But your daughter still. Meet me in the quiet, I still long for you.
Hagar: Genesis 16
God who sees me,You know the pain from which I run and the scorn from which I flee,
Yet you see me and the babe that grows within and you tell us:
You will survive, you will rise, your son will grow strong!
You sing to me of my worth, of my value, of the promise you hold for me in life.
I know who I look upon, shaking at the wonder of this gift,
And I call you by name “you are the God who sees me.”
Ruth: The Book of Ruth
Kinsman redeemer,You who led me to a foreign home,
A land without help, without compassion,
I praise you for guiding me to Boaz; he who cares for and notices the forgotten.
You gave me the courage to claim your people as mine,
The gumption to reach for security for my family,
The bravery and wisdom to boldly appeal to your law and goodness.
Bathsheba: 2 Samuel 11, 1 Kings 1:15-31, 1 Kings 2:19
Omniscient God,Who knows the full story of that fateful bath and honors the innocent,
Who raises up she who lived in fear and pain,
to stand at the right hand of her son the king.
She sees her son crowned and he honors her fortitude and power,
God, you mourn at our losses but celebrate our triumph,
You know the brave heart that beats inside the broken.
The woman who poured oil on Christ’s feet: Luke 7:36-50
Creative God,Who recognizes the beauty of symbolism,
Who wrote art, passion, and wonder onto our hearts,
Comfort your daughter who longs to create meaning,
Who pours out her oil on your feet,
Who feels the itchy scorn of judgement,
But follows where her heart leads.
If you enjoyed this piece, would you consider sharing it with a friend? Thank you!
A quick note: This prayer is a different style than most of my pieces and has been a project of mine for a couple months. Inspired by what the women may have prayed, I used the Ignatian method imaginative prayer to write these. The subject matter of women in scripture is incredibly dear to me and this space will likely reflect that in the near future.
However, the point of this note was mainly to apologize for my very loose definition of “monthly” in relation to this Substack. Lord willing, I will be graduating this June (!!) and hopefully the alleviation of school assignments will free up more time to write. Thank you each for your patience and willingness to share your time with me; it is a gift that I appreciate!
Recommendations
I recently had the pleasure of attending an online workshop through Writing the Wild with Rowen White on Reverent Curiosity. Her work both as an indigenous seed keeper and writer inspires me to incorporate intentional observation of nature more fully in my writing. Check out her Instagram.
Kaitlin Curtice recently started a series on the seasonal model of publishing on her Substack and it has breathed life into how I view the hustle of a career in writing. Furthermore, she is offering some Zoom sessions on the realms explored within her book Living Resistance. I attended the personal realm session and it was incredible!
My dear friend Mary Beth Keenan wrote a poem entitled “With Love, I Fall” on Climate Crisis for The Write Launch and it is as beautiful as it is poignant.
Another sweet friend, Catherine Sullivan, recently wrote a piece on her substack, Wonder and Awe, about the Catholic Imagination within Tomie dePaola’s childrens books. It made me think deeper about how I read to my children and inspired me to pull out all our Tomie dePaola books!
Finally, in what feels like a milestone moment of writing, I published a prayer on Mothering Spirit entitled ‘A Prayer for the Mess of Motherhood.’ I always love reading both the Mothering Spirit and anything written by its founder Laura K Fanucci so having the opportunity to write for this publication was such a gift!