Bless Lord the Waters of the Nile

My favorite prayer in the daily mass says:

Bless, Lord, the waters of the Nile,
plants and fruits of the earth for the sake of the poor of Your people:
widows, orphans, strangers, guests and workers in every locale
as well as those who beseech You and call out Your holy name.
For the eyes of all hope in You
and You give them their food in due season.
Be gracious to us according to Your goodness,
You who give food to each one.
Fill our hearts with joy and peace.
May there be enough of everything
so that we may grow in every good work.

It’s amazing to think that this prayer has been prayed in Coptic, in Arabic and in English by generations of Copts over hundreds of years. As Egypt has changed hands, dynasties, rulers and been influenced by leaders, good and bad, over the centuries, this prayer has rolled off the tongues of Egypt’s sons and daughters like the Nile rolls ever northward.

My understanding and knowledge of Egyptian history is not as good as it could be, but certainly Egypt lives in need of prayer as badly as at any point in its history. Tomorrow as I leave Egypt to return home, protestors will be gathering at Tahrir Square to renew the call for a continuation of the revolution that began on 25 January. Those revolutionaries – primarily young people – who long to see Egypt become a truly free and democratic nation where all people know justice, need this prayer.

The Copts who pray these words for their land and their people also need our prayers. Their eyes indeed hope in God these days, but many live in fear of what the future will hold. The stories I have heard and read this summer are sobering. The sectarian divisions that have flared in large and public ways in recent months continue in smaller ways in cities and villages across Egypt. Christians (and other religious minorities) feel threatened by the uncertainty that revolution has brought to them. They live with the fear of harassment and violence and sometimes they live with real violence and harassment.

In any case, my students and friends and others I have met this summer have asked more than anytime, “pray for us.” The stories I have heard, the faces I know, the news I read will continue to shape my prayer in the coming days, weeks and months. I invite you to join me in asking God to continue to open wide his hand to bless the Nile and this treasured land and all those who have been formed by it.