A Litany for
The Millennium

Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB

O Cosmic Christ,
in you
            and through you
            and for you,
all things were created;
in you
            all things hold together 
            and have their being.

Through Teilhard de Chardin,
            scientist of the cosmos,
you imagined a new heaven and a new earth.
Through Teresa of Avila,
            charismatic leader,
you inspired a church of courage
and wisdom.
Through Mahatma Gandhi,
            great soul,
you became nonviolent
in the struggle for justice.
Through Catherine of Siena,
            fearless visionary,
you forged a new path for women.
Through Meister Eckhart,
            creative mystic,
you refused to abandon the inner light.
Through Hildegard of Bingen,
            greenness of God,
you poured out juicy, rich grace on all creation.
Through Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
            drum major for freedom,
you shattered racial barriers
and freed dreamers to dream.     
Through Anne Frank,
            writer and witness,
you preserved goodness in the midst of great evil.
Through Cesar Chavez,
            noble farmworker,
you transformed the dignity
of human labor.
Through Harriet Tubman,
            prophet and pilgrim,
you led the captives into freedom.
Through Vincent Van Gogh,
            artist of light,
you revealed the sacredness
            in sunflowers
            and in starry nights.
Through Thea Bowman,
            healer songbird,
you danced the African-American culture
into the Church.
Through Pope John XXIII,
            window to the world,
you awakened awareness to the signs of the times.
Through Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
            guardian of the unwanted,
you enfleshed a reverence for all life.
Through Thomas Merton,
            universal monk,
you explored the sanctity of every human search.
Through Mary Magdalene,
            apostle to the apostles,
you ordained women to proclaim the good news.
Through Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
            musician of Holy Mystery,
you bathed the world in beauty.
Through Julian of Norwich,
            anchoress and seer,
you showed the Mother image of God.
Through Dom Bede Griffiths,
            marriage of East and West,
you unveiled the divine face
at the heart of the world.
Through Joan of Arc,
            defender and protector,
you remained true to personal conscience
over institutional law.
Through Rumi,
            poet in ecstasy,
you illuminated friendship as mystical union.
Through Maura Clarke and Companions,
            martyrs of El Salvador,
you rise again in the hopes of the dispossessed.
Through Rabbi Abraham Heschel,
            Hassidic sage,
you answered our search for meaning
with wonder, pathos for the poor, and sabbath rest.
Through Dorothy Day,
            pillar of the poor,
you recognized holiness as bread for the hungry.

O Cosmic Christ,
in your heart
all history finds meaning and purpose.
In the new millennium,
            in the celebration of jubilee
help us find that which we all seek:
            a communion of love
            with each other
            and with you, the Alpha and Omega,
            the first and last,
            the yesterday, today, and tomorrow,
            the beginning without end.
            Amen.

Additional reading:
Prayers for a New Millennium, by Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB (Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 1998).

Reprinted here with the kind permission of Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, and Liguori Publications.