A Prayer for a Violent Nation
By Kaitlin Curtice

O God,
Mystery,
Creator,
First Breath—

We are so troubled.
We are the ones in denial of our violence
and we are the ones who are crying out for justice.
Can you feel us shaking?

O God,
Mystery,
Creator,
First Breath—

We are spiraling in despair.
We are looking to the ancestors
who teach us how to pray
and we are calling out the ancestors
who handed down their violence to us.
Can we be different?

O God,
Mystery,
Creator,
First Breath—

We cannot fathom wholeness
because, maybe, we don’t really want it.
Teach us to want it.
Can we want it?

O God,
Mystery,
Creator,
First Breath—

We cannot go on this way,
with broken bones and unhealed wounds
and people screaming in the streets
for air.

O God,
Mystery,
Creator,
First Breath—

We are trying not to give up on each other.
We need to remember our way home.
We need to learn to believe in Us.
Can we believe in Us?

Help us remember what it means.
Help us name and honor those who are killed in our streets.
Help us name our white supremacy.
Help us hold one another in Real Love.
Help us deny systems of whiteness.
Help us de-center hate.
Help us find the wounds.
Help us heal the wounds.
Help us.
Help.

Published in Sojourner Magazine-May 27, 2020

Kaitlin Curtice is a Native American Christian author and speaker. As an enrolled member of the Potawatomi Citizen Band and someone who has grown up in the Christian faith, Kaitlin writes on the intersection of Indigenous spirituality, faith in everyday life, and the church. Her new book NATIVE (available May 2020) is about identity, soul-searching, and being on the never-ending journey of finding ourselves and finding God. As both a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a Christian, Kaitlin offers a unique perspective on these topics. In this book, she shows how reconnecting with her identity both informs and challenges her faith.