A Prayer for Burnout Pastors and Leaders in Fukushima on Good Friday

For the last five years pastors and Christian leaders in Fukushima have worked selflessly for Fukushima. Many of them haven't had any chance for vacation.  I've been hearing their honest cries this time. Their quiet yearning to be healed and to be whole again. Burnout and overwork is now the silent tsunami swallowing God's people one by one.

On this Good Friday (back home in Vancouver) and Holy Saturday (here in Japan) I offer this prayer for those burnout pastors and workers to whose stories I have the privilege to listen.

“Prayer When You Have Nothing Left to Give”

By Diana Macalintal

Lord, I have nothing left to give.

I’m exhausted and worn out.

Yet so many still ask for more.

Grant me that last ounce of strength 

that sustained you on the cross 

and allowed you to give 

one last word of forgiveness, 

that I may be gentle 

with others and with myself.

And when that too is spent, 

help me stay present even in my emptiness, 

and let my presence be 

the first and last gift I have to give.

Amen.

The Work of Your Hands, page 39.

(Thanks to Father John Predmore, S.J. who sent me this poem through his blog, 

Ignatian Spirituality: Set the World Ablaze).