Lord: to You and our Lady, Your Blessed Mother, I pray,
that the Jesus or Theotokos prayers I am led to say
outside of, or in addition to, those on my prayer rope
shall go to the aid of deceased loved ones' souls (like Aunt Dorothy,
Uncle Leo, and Grandma Buschur; their admirable piety
was never compromised by doubt or fear,
being Roman Catholic; unlike others in my family);
and those whom I have loved, or have been like me *;
and all those who perished when Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii.
And those, living or dead, whose intricate natures cause them to be reviled
by those whom prejudice and hatred have beguiled.
This is my prayer, offered in fervent hope
as my own time---whatever night or day---
of departure draws the more near.
Starward, an Orthodox Christian