Litany of Contradictory Things

LITANY OF CONTRADICTORY THINGS

This prayer is based on the words of Jesus “let both grow together” when he was talking about wheat and weeds growing in the same field. 

Wheat and weeds:
let them grow together.

Arabs and Jews in Palestine:
let them grow together.

Greeks and Turks of the Balkans:
let them grow together.

Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland:
let them grow together.

Pros and Contras of Central America:
let them grow together.

Documented and undocumented aliens:
let them grow together.

Immigrants and Native Americans:
let them grow together.

Blacks and Whites of South Africa:
let them grow together.

Sikhs and Hindus of India:
let them grow together.

Revolutionaries and reactionaries:
let them grow together.

Russians and Americans:
let them grow together.

Religious leaders who lay and lighten burdens:
let them grow together.

Disciples prone to boasts and betrayals:
let them grow together.

People who wound and heal:
let them grow together.

Rich and poor, humble and haughty:
let them grow together.

Those whose thinking is similar and contrary:
let them grow together.

Those whose feelings are transparent or concealed:
let them grow together.

Days of sparseness and days of plenty:
let them grow together.

Winter, spring, summer, fall:
let them grow together.

All the seasons of one’s life:
let them grow together.

Joys and sorrow, laughter, tears:
let them grow together.

Strength and weakness:
let them grow together.

Doubt and faith:
let them grow together.

Denial and commitment:
let them grow together.

Preoccupation and freedom:
let them grow together.

Virtue and vice:
let them grow together.

Contemplation and action:
let them grow together.

Giving and receiving:
let them grow together.

The helpful and the helpless:
let them grow together.

Wisdom of the East and West:
let them grow together.

All contrarieties of the Spirit:
let them grow together.

Michael Moynahan, SJ

Excerpted and adapted from the book Hearts on Fire, edited by Michael Harter SJ, 2004, pgs 160-163.

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