Lord God of Letters,

Please bless your distinguished, uncompromising and cantankerous servant, Bernard Shaw. He was skeptical of You,
but I hope that he has changed that view,
in Your Heavenly Presence.

Like You, Mr. Shaw was always dismayed
when mankind fell short of its possible promise and potential glory.
He rumbled against our hypocrisies
like a thunder from the Old Testament.

He shamed our penchant for making your furry creatures into coats and hats. And still today, his writings make us wonder
at a mankind often selfish and shortsighted, in Your world so filled with the possibility of great vision and love.

Please, in Shaw’s name, send down
Your blessings on today's actors, essayists, playwrights and directors. Spare critics from vanity, actors from bronchitis
and poverty, and audiences from boredom
and fits of coughing.

Guide corporations to give the grants they should give to the arts, and let governments see that not by guns and bread alone does man survive, but by religion, the arts
and other civil enterprises which enoble
the body and nourish the soul.

Like Bernard Shaw, may we all please You
by living long and productive lives.
Make us, like Mr. Shaw, cynical
in the presence of the falseand paltry,
generous in the company of the defenseless,
and laughing in the face of all which demeans the great potential of life.

Finally, my Jesus, bring us from the tables
of this world to that everlasting banquet feast at which we may join You,
and hopefully, Mr. Shaw, in an unending celebration of Your glory!

All this I pray in hope and trust and love,

Amen