Sisters, I stand before you without homily or lecture or opinion. I stand here naked on the page. I stand here with my hands extended in helpless prayer. I will never know your pain. I will never know your agony of spirit. I will never know the dark nights of your souls. I will never know the grinding fury of being lectured constantly by men who will never know what and how you felt. I stand here with only prayers in my mouth, for your peace, for the souls of the lost children, for the agony of your spirits and theirs. I have no wisdom. I have no stance of position or agenda. I leave all that outside the door. I only wish to reach for you and hold your hands and say I beg the love of the Unimaginable One on you and your lost children. There is a holy country beyond politics and religion and money and I want to stand there for a moment with you, even if it is just this one moment with you, even if it is just this one moment on this one page. My prayers for you and yours; may you meet again someday, and reach for each other, and find an eternity of peace and joy, in the light of the Love. And so: amen.

Excerpted from A Book of Uncommon Prayer, copyright ©2014 by Brian Doyle. Used with permission of the publisher, Sorin Books, an imprint of Ave Maria Press®, Inc., P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556.