Lord, send us.
Whenever you will it,
let us leave the house behind us
that has grown dear to us,
that was our place of prayer, of doubt, of adoration,
that was for us the stone upon which we had settled,
that was the space that knew us,
the place that sheltered us.
Whenever you will it,
let us leave behind the brothers and sisters whom we know,
whom we have loved, angered, blessed,
the saints and sinners and the middling ones
with whom we have believed and prayed,
worked and sweated,
eaten and drunk together under one roof.
Whenever you will it,
we will take leave
of the hands and prayers that bore us,
of the eyes that called us,
of the house we helped to build,
that has now become a part of us.
Whenever you will it,
we will bid farewell.
For you are calling us.
You are sending us.
And wherever we settle, you are there already.
You who have borne us, molded, guided, freed us; you are there already.
You who lead us in new and unimagined ways, you are there already.
We walk with you, encounter you, in ways we could never have believed—
for you are there already.
We set out,
and we are not abandoned—
for you go with us.
Amen.”
In Your Embrace 