Side note: “When Sirens Wail” would be an amazing title for a poem.
For most of my life when I’d hear sirens I would pray a Hail Mary. It was a rote prayer which was a simple enough go-to. And not that I never didn’t mean my prayer or want God to help whoever was in need, but I started to go stale in my praying of it (plus I selfishly was like “a whole Hail Mary takes awhile” and so I think that contributed to my feelings of staleness in prayer (gosh, that’s soo bad! 20 seconds should not feel like too long to pray for someone!))
But/So a few years ago I got more “adventurous” in my “there’s a siren. say a prayer” prayers. And I figure I should share it. Because it has helped me be intentional in my prayer and have real feeling behind it.
- I ask God to be with whoever is in need.
- I ask God to guide the “hearts, hands, and heads” of the paramedics. If it’s a fire truck it’s “hearts, hands, heads, and hoses”. Originally this wasn’t all perfect alliteration — instead of “heads” I had “minds” –only recently-ish was did I realize the H option! And thank goodness I did because the alliteration makes it all the better!
I share in case you wish to prayer similarly.
When I pray it I visualize the first responders and intentionally focus on their hearts, hands, and heads. — That God guide their hands in helping do whatever is needed to help the person, their hearts in caring for the person that they are helping, and their heads to know what it is they need to do to help.
It is simple, quick, and to the point. …And sometimes I still throw in that Hail Mary for full measure.
Give God Your Yes 