A prayer for the twenty-second Sunday of ordinary time.

God.

We hear Jeremiah’s words to you, and they could be our words. You spoke to him. You said, “I know you.” You said, “speak for me.”

Jeremiah said, “I don’t know how to speak. I am too young.”

You speak to us and we say, “I’m too young.  I’m too old. I’m too uncertain. I’m too different. I’m too tired. I’m too outside the cool people. I’m too ignorant. I’m too confused. I’m too involved with these other things you gave me to do.”

But what we are really saying is what Jeremiah wa...