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Beloved, today's deep breath is a prayer that was prayed yesterday by Pastor Julio Hernandez, Executive Director of the Congressional Action Network in DC at the Praying With Our Feet Action in DC. ––Rev. Moya Harris, Sojourners A Prayer of Remembrance, Lament, and Resolve O Creator of memory and mercy, we come before you carrying names that refuse to leave us, stories that cling to our hearts lives that should not have ended as they did. We remember Luis Gustavo Nuñez Cáceres, whose heart gave out far from home after cries for care went unanswered. We remember Geraldo Lunas Campos who pleaded for breath, whose final moments were marked by fear and force. We remember Victor Manuel Díaz, who sought safety and instead found confinement and death. We remember Parady La, whose body endured withdrawal in isolation, whose suffering was treated as disposable. We remember Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, whose heart stopped under the weight of detention and despair. We remember Heber Sánchez Dominguez, found alone in the night, his death unanswered, his dignity still awaiting justice. We remember Keith Porter Jr., Renée Nicole Good, and Alex Pretti, lives taken by violence, absences that still ache. And we remember Liam Conejo Ramos, and the children separated and detained–– children who learned fear before safety, who slept without their parents’ arms, who were numbered, transferred, confined, taught too young what loss feels like and their liberty stripped in the dark. We remember the children who survive only through donated breast milk, whose most basic needs depend on mercy rather than justice. Holy One, you know every name. You know every breath that was cut short. Do not let us forget–– but because remembering is an act of love. Let these names trouble our silence. Let these lives stir conscience. Let this grief move us to an embodied prayer, from lament into courage, from sorrow into faithful resistance. Teach us to remember in ways that heal, to mourn in ways that transform, to love in ways that demand justice. Until no child is separated. Until no one is treated as expendable. Until mercy governs our systems and every life is honored as sacred. We place these lives before you, and we carry them with us–– into this city, this day, and the work ahead. May these lives call us into faithful courage, to cause good trouble in the service of freedom, mercy and justice. Amen.
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