Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A *Alternate* First Reading (No Psalm)

O my friend,
take heart.
The work of repair
is aching
in its slowness
and beautiful in
the inches by which
it will arrive.
Do not pray to be patient
but to persist.
Ask for the endurance
that helps us learn
to breathe
in the midst of fear,
to love
in the presence
of sorrow,
to dream
within the rending
of the world that might
be made

The words of Jan Richardson