Let us learn to live without

Merciful God,
During Lent, we Christians
Try to see our sins clearly, to own their wrongness fully,
And, finally, to shed those wrongs at the foot of Your cross.

Let those of us who live in "First World" countries
Own not only our personal wrongdoings
But the sins we fail to see because they are
Perpetrated against people we don't know
And hidden
In the conveniences of our "modern" lives.

Let us see that our rich way of life is wholly dependent
On the labor and poverty of workers
In less developed countries.
Let us see that we have no inherent right to
Consume most of the world's natural resources,
Just because it's cheap to gas up our cars,
Easy to run our faucets and turn on our T.V.s.

In the U.S., where we are but 5% of the world's people,
We consume a third of its electricity and nearly half its gasoline.
The Mexican woman who makes our jeans
Gets a dollar to sew ten pairs and
Can't afford enough food or medicine for her children.
The people who pick our produce are the poorest
In our hemisphere. To shoulder more than
A thousand pounds of food every day, with an empty stomach,
Is surely Hell.

Forgive us, Loving God,
Our sin of luxury.
Let us redefine "fasting" to mean more than a
Spiritual practice of temporary denial.
Let us learn to live without
Consuming so much and
End our complicity with the
Oppression of our brothers and sisters around the world,
Who are equally beloved by God.

Amen. --Susan