An Immigrant Prayer

You are the God who bears the brunt of the question, “Why didn’t you stay where you belong?” You feel the red-faced embarrassment when we hear, “Keep your distance, you foreigner, with your different-colored skin and your strange-sounding speech, with your culture, food, religion, and clothing that are inferior to my own.”

You are the God who sits along side of us who work in sweatshops, with our bloodshot eyes and aching fingers squinting under the soul-less glare of a florescent light.

You are the God who rises early in the morning with us as we go to harvest fresh vegetables and fruits picked with fingers stained by the pesticides and fungicides that penetrate our skin.

You are the God who stands with us in the chill of the morning in the parking lot at Home Depot, with anxious stomachs hoping that we too would be picked to work just for that one day.

Loving God, as we stand before you today, help us to remember that when we speak of immigrants and refugees, we speak of Christ.

Hear our prayers for necessary, just, and comprehensive immigration reform. Make us strong in the work for immigrant justice and remind us that our work is no easier than the every day work of our immigrant sisters and brothers.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(adapted from Justiceforimmigrants.org website by Fr. Jon Pedigo)