Empty Me

Gracious and Holy One,
    creator of all things
        and of emptiness,
I come to you
    full of much that clutters and distracts,
        stifles and burdens me,
            and makes me a burden to others.
Empty me now
    of gnawing dissatisfactions,
        of anxious imaginings,
            of fretful preoccupations,
    of nagging prejudices,
        of old scores to settle,
            and of the arrogance of being right.
Empty me
    of the ways I unthinkingly think of myself as powerless,
        as a victim,
             as determined by sex, age, race,
                 as being less than I am,
                     or as other than yours.
Empty me
    of the disguises and lies
        in which I hide myself from other people
             and from my responsibility
                  for my neighbors and for the world.
Hollow cut in me a space
in which I will find myself,
    find peace and a whole heart,
        a forgiving spirit and holiness,
             the springs of laughter,
         and the will to reach boldly
             for abundant life for myself
                 and the whole human family.