prayer
PRAY: Their plowshares are beat into swords
Isaiah 2:4 They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.
Their plowshares are beat into swords
By Walter Brueggemann
Appears in the book Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth
And now their plowshares are beat into swords-as are ours.
now their pruning hooks are beat into spears-as are ours.
Not only swords and spears,
but bullets, and bombs, and missiles,
of steel on flesh,
of power against bodies...
And you, in your indignation sound your mantra,
"Blessed are the peacemakers."
We dare to believe they are the aggressor,
and we are the peacemaker.
Yet in sober night dream, we glance otherwise
and think we may be aggressor,
as we vision rubbled homes,
murdered civilians,
and charred babies.
And you, in our sadness, sound your mantra,
"Blessed are the peacemakers."
We do not love war,
we yearn for peace,
but we have lost much will for peace
even while we dream of order.
And you, in your hope, sound your mantra,
"Blessed are the peacemakers."
Deliver us from excessive certitude about ourselves.
Hold us in the deep ambiguity where we find ourselves,
Show us yet again the gaping space
between your will and our feeble imagination.
Sound your mantra with more authority,
with more indignation,
through sadness,
in hope... "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Only peacemakers are blessed.
We find ourselves well short of blessed.
Give us freedom for your deep otherwise,
finally to be blessed,
in the name of the Peacemaker
who gave and did not take.
Amen.
We often think of peace as the absence of war;
that if the powerful countries would reduce their arsenals,
we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons,
we see our own minds - our prejudices, fears, and ignorance.
Even if we transported all the bombs to the moon,
the roots of war and the reasons for bombs would still be here,
in our hearts and minds,
and sooner or later we would make new bombs."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
A Reflection on Immigration and Work
Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, Ph.D., D.D., Bishop of Brooklyn
Chairman, Domestic Policy Committee, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
For the Catholic Church, immigration is not a political issue, but a fundamental human and moral issue. We bring to this discussion our faith, our moral principles and our long experience. Through the decades, immigrants have built our communities of faith and they are still bringing new life to our church. Immigrants are not numbers for us. They are our brothers and sisters; they are our "neighbors."
…Who is our neighbor is not dependent on where they were born or what documents they possess.
The immigration debate this Labor Day challenges us to consider again who we are as a nation, how our economy treats all workers, how we welcome the "strangers" among us. As Catholics, we should join this discussion and bring our belief in the sacredness of human life, the inherent dignity of the human person and the value of work. We cannot simply retreat behind walls at our borders or in our hearts and minds. As believers, we are called to build bridges between the native born and newcomer, between legitimate concerns about security and national traditions of welcome, from fear and frustration to hope and action for a better tomorrow.
Click here for a prayer service from the USCCB.
Meditation on Gratitude
Both ancient teachings and modern medical research agree that one of the quickest, most direct routes to restoring harmony and balance in our lives is to foster gratitude and appreciation. The moment you shift from a mindstate of negativity or judgment to one of appreciation, there are immediate effects at many levels of your being: brain function becomes more balanced, harmonized, and supple; your heart begins to pump in a much more coherent and harmoniously balanced rhythm; and biochemical changes trigger a host of healthful balancing reactions throughout your body.
In the healing ways of indigenous people, the restorative power of gratitude was well understood. A heart filled with gratitude generates actions and prayers that complete the circle between the gift offered to us, the receiver of the gift, and the sacred source of the gift. To offer prayers of thanksgiving is a gesture of rejoicing in discovering the many gifts that life brings us. Here is a way to dwell in gratitude and thanksgiving:
Sitting quietly, shift toward dynamic balance with a few minutes of mindful breathing. Bring to mind someone for whom you are deeply grateful. As you breathe in, take this person to heart. Breathing out, let your heartfelt gratitude shine deeply and brightly to them and through them. Continue for as long as you like, letting each breath take to heart a loved one, a friend, someone who has been kind to you, someone who is teaching you patience or how to forgive. Let each breath shine from the depths of your being through the depths of their being in order to light up their life with your love.
Taking your eyes, your ears, your hands, your intelligence to heart, bless them in a similar way with the heartfelt radiance of your appreciation. Whoever or whatever comes to mind, gather them into your heart, one at a time or all together. Taking these many gifts to heart, complete and affirm the circle with gratitude, assuring that the stream of blessings in your life and in the universe will be unbroken.
Joel & Michelle Levey: Simple Meditation & Relaxation; The Fine Art of Relaxation, Concentration, & Meditation
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