Prayers of entreaty and thanks

Born a Slave

I was born into a house of slavery, a slave
How then being freed do I spit on freedom?
Though I have mutilated my flesh
The beast rules me from Gehenna

Holy God, cut off my hands
That I might not be able to wrap my wrists again in chains

Holy Mighty, cut off my feet
That I cannot walk back to that accursed prison cell

Holy Immortal, cut out my tongue
That I will not cry out to my former masters to abduct me

If you must, destroy my body, my life, to save my very soul

Thanks Be

Thanks be to Him who opens doors, maker of life-giving crosses.
Thanks be to Him who manifests in all wisdom, redeems all time.
Thanks unto the One who gives grace in speech having been fulled with salt.
Thanks and again to He who lifted Adam from the dark pit.

Sender of prophets, Illuminer of dreams,
Gift of interpretors.

To Light, to Song, to Faithfulness,
To Grace and Abounding Love.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

Three paintings by Orozco: Gods of the Modern World (top), Jesus the Liberator (middle), and Man of Fire (bottom) in the tholos-like dome of the Hospicio Cabanas in Guadalajara, Mexico