The text of my prayer offered at the #RAISEUPNY rally at the Capital in Albany, NY

Holy one, at all times and in all places since the beginning of time you have called upon prophets to speak on behalf of the poor and dispossessed and each community. Throughout times revolutionaries with names like Moses and Amos and Micah and Jesus and St Paul and Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez and Dorothy Day have spoken out on the wretched conditions working poor marginalized in each society. So it is today we take our place in the great chain of faith that stretches from the beginning of time to today and call on our state leaders to begin work taking care of our working poor in New York State. God, we know the road is long but each great journey begins with a few steps and we know that the moral arc is long but that it always bends towards justice and we know that even though there are those who stand in the doorways seeking to block the flow of progress but we also know that the times they are a-changin’. God there are few who believe it is possible to take care of one’s family and oneself in a dignified manner making eight dollars an hour and yet there are those corporations and heads of corporations whose hearts have been hardened like pharaoh’s and who believe that the only way to turn a profit is on the back of their poor and marginalized workers. But we pray for them and we don’t lose hope because we believe the redemption is possible in this moment and this one and this one. So God continue to speak with that still small voice, continue to speak to us, continue to speak to our leaders continue to speak to those who lead major corporations, continue to speak to all of us words of peace and hope and justice reminding is always the light always shines in darkness and the darkness can never, ever overcome it. Amen.