Section:
prayers
We often find ourselves at times in the dark
Good or evil in between, of our own or another’s making.
Our work is to name the darkness for what it is and to tend what it asks of us:
Whether it is a darkness that asks for justice
To bring the dawn of hope to a night of terror,
Or for a candle to give warmth to the shadows,
Or for companions to hold us in our uncertainty and unknowing,
Or for a blanket to enfold us as we wait for the darkness
To teach us what we need to know.
In these days of darkness and solidarity, it may indeed seem that god’s face is
Hidden from our sight. But the sacred presence is there, breathing in the shadows. This is when we learn to trust senses other than sight and to seek the face of god beneath our fingertips.
Good or evil in between, of our own or another’s making.
Our work is to name the darkness for what it is and to tend what it asks of us:
Whether it is a darkness that asks for justice
To bring the dawn of hope to a night of terror,
Or for a candle to give warmth to the shadows,
Or for companions to hold us in our uncertainty and unknowing,
Or for a blanket to enfold us as we wait for the darkness
To teach us what we need to know.
In these days of darkness and solidarity, it may indeed seem that god’s face is
Hidden from our sight. But the sacred presence is there, breathing in the shadows. This is when we learn to trust senses other than sight and to seek the face of god beneath our fingertips.
(Taken from NIGHT VISIONS by Jan L. Richardson)
INVOCATION
Let us believe passionately the words of scripture: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst.” We are gathered together today to pray in solidarity with the transforming witness of our sisters and brothers at the School of Americas. We are one with them in their hope; we are one with our brothers and sisters in Central and South America in their thirst for justice; we are one in the Spirit of God who urges us: “live justly, love tenderly and walk humbly before me.” Let us cry to God to witness to this transforming action today.
Side 1 God, send out your Spirit. Renew the face of the earth. The tools for death rooted in the School of the Americas (WHISC) spread a poison on our land. Rain down, rain down your peace! Let it flood the grounds at the School of the Americas, bringing a transformed and life-giving spirit to it.
Side 2 Show your truth to all who have been misled by a false belief in military might. Transform the minds and hearts of all who strive to be masters of war. Make them servants of peace.
Side 1 Lead us from death to Life, from falsehood to truth. From despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Side 2 Lead us from hate to love from war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts, let peace fill our world.
Let peace fill our universe.All Let the goodness of God cry out today, and let this land come to life with God’s saving grace.
Romero’s Challenge to the Churches
Reader 1. It is the poor who tell us what the world is, and what the Church’s service to the world should be. It is within this world devoid of human face, this contemporary sacrament of the suffering servant of Yahweh, that the Church of my archdiocese has undertaken to incarnate itself.
Reader 2. The world of the poor, with its very concrete social and political characteristics, teaches us where the Church can incarnate itself in such a way that it will avoid the false universalism that inclines the Church to associate itself with the powerful. ..The world of the poor teaches us that the sublimity of Christian love ought to be mediated through the overriding necessity of justice for the majority.
Reader 3. The Church is in the world so as to bring the liberating love of God, manifested in Christ. It therefore understands Christ’s preference for the poor, because the poor are...those who place before the Latin American Church a challenge and a mission that it cannot sidestep and to which it must respond with a speed and boldness adequate to the urgency of the times.
Reader 4. The Church can be Church only as long as it goes on being the Body of Christ. Its mission will be authentic only so long as it is the mission of Jesus in the new situations, the new circumstances of history. It is the church’s duty in history to lend its voice to Christ so that he may speak; its feet so that he may walk today’s world; its hands to build the reign of God, and to offer all its members "to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ.
Reader 5. The Church would betray it own love for God and its fidelity to the Gospel if it stopped being "the voice of the voiceless," a defender of the rights of the poor, a promoter of every just aspiration for liberation, a guide, an empowerer, a humanizer of every legitimate struggle to achieve a more just society, a society that prepares the way for the true reign of God in history.
Song
“Let Justice Roll Like A River” by Marty Haugen (WONDROUS LOVE) or any other appropriate hymn.
Leader: Let us join now in making our commitment to walk with the people of Central America. God we offer these gifts of corn and beans symbol of the work and life of the campesinos. Help them to rebuild their land.
Response: Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
God we offer you this Bible, symbol of the faith of the poor. They remain for us models of what it means to live out our faith in a world of injustice.
God we offer you this earth, symbol of those displaced by poverty and oppression. Help then to reclaim their land.
God, we offer our solidarity as we see the "Morning Star" of justice and peace rising over Central America.
AWAY WHISC! AWAY!
CLOSE THE SOA!
AWAY WHISC! AWAY!
