26th Jun 2006
A Prayer for Relief from Loneliness
I took a night class at Boston College on the psalms, which was taught by a priest on the cusp of retirement. He said that more than anything else, the psalms addressed a fundamental human need: relief from loneliness.
The class was mostly working professionals who only had time to attend BC at night. This included me. But most of the women in the class were Catholic and intent on working in a pastoral fashion in the Catholic Church. It amused the priest to think I would travel from Cambridge to take his class. But what he didn’t understand was that the classes away from Harvard were the best—my classmates also struggled to find time to complete their readings and papers, they hadn’t taken out loans and used trust funds to afford their education, they had earned each class, dollar by dollar.
He used to take the same bus as I did home from class and often he sat in front of me. We would talk for a while, but inevitably, he would end up staring out into the nighttime suburbs of Boston as we were transported back to Cambridge and I would return to my readings. I think he knew loneliness well.
I am beginning to think about loneliness again, not because I am lonely, necessarily, but because I am beginning to identify the barriers in our everyday lives that set us apart from one another, that keep us from community, that make us feel truly and existentially alone in the world.
Prayer for Those in Need
Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
From the end of the earth will I call unto Thee, when my heart fainteth; lead me to a rock that is too high for me.
For Thou hast been a refuge for me, a tower of strength in the face of the enemy.
I will dwell in Thy Tent for ever; I will take refuge in the covert of Thy wings. Selah
- Psalms 61: 2-5 from Beliefnet
