My feelings have been all over the lot after two mass shootings. The more I learn, the more intense my feelings.
There is the posturing about what should or should not have been done during the crisis. But I can not escape the awareneas that we have been here so many times before. Nothing meaningful has been done to reverse the rising tide of violence. The same ineffective solutions are proposed while ignoring solutions that have proven effective in so many other countries.
All this against the backdrop of a holiday we call Memorial Day. Originally it invited serious reflection about those who paid the supreme price for what they believed in our Civil War. The reality today seems more focused on the longed-for beginning of outdoor celebrations and vacations.
The Vincentian Question
Further complicating matters is the fear that, once again, “nobody “will do anything meaningful. “They” ought to do something, anything!
But now am I looking in the mirror and asking myself a highly personal question. We know St. Vincent had the courage to ask “What must, can, I do to change all I see?” What is within my power? In that mirror, I see the only person I can control. So what can I do?
The first thing I can do is take stock. The well-known serenity prayer helps me focus.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
These words help me open my heart in prayer to do what I can and should do!.
A Vincentian approach to this Memorial Day
Deacon Greg Kandra has shared a prayer that speaks to my heart and gives me words.
Let me share what he wrote in the context of an interfaith prayer service a few days ago. (I have taken the liberty to substitute “I” for “We”, “Me” for “Us.”)
Almighty God,
I have prayed for peace for so long,
I come to again to plead
In this moment of sorrow and anxiety:
Let there be peace.
Help me not only to be an instrument of your peace,
Help me to be an instrument of justice.
Guide me to be a person of compassion.
Of tolerance.
Of understanding.
Make me instrument of hope.
He continues…
At the dawn of time, you called out:
“Let there be light.”
May I now be the light in our dark and desperate world.
Help me to scatter the shadows of fear and mistrust, of anger and hate.
Give me the grace to heal what is broken,
To mend what is torn,
To strengthen what is weak,
And uplift all who feel forgotten, wounded and alone.
Good and generous God, help me continue your creation.
So that I may leave behind a better world,
A world like the one you first dreamed of,
A world of solidarity and peace —
A world renewed by the blazing, fearless light of hope.
Amen.
So I now ask myself, how I can be
- peace,
- justice.
- hope.
Now I especially pray, help me be a memorial to you and
- heal what is broken,
- mend what is torn,
- strengthen what is weak,
- uplift all who feel forgotten, wounded, and alone
Isn’t that what Jesus did with the outsiders of his day. He sought them out … and washed their feet. He asks us to do this in memory of him!
This Memorial Day I need to look around me for those who feel forgotten, wounded, and alone.
If we all did that something would change.
What is within your power to do?
Will you commit to do it?
Click below for an audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk
Thank you and Deacon Greg Kandra.
There was a rumbling suggesting that the American Bishops consider moving the celebration of All Souls Day to Memorial Day, in part, to sanctify and align the national consciousness of Memorial Day with how the Church remembers her seemingly forgotten dead on All Souls Day. There seems to be some merit to that consideration and would elevate All Souls Day to a level is doesn’t receive now. (At least, not compared to All Saints Day.)
I was compelled to (re)read some verses from Job (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/job/0); there are far too many to cite here, but the introduction to the book by the New American Bible authors/editors implies that Job never really gets an answer to his question about why the innocent suffer. That question and its lack of appropriate answers apparently are not new. Sadly.
You point out that other countries have found a way, to some degree, to manage the situation. Mental illness is just as common there as in the USA, yet they have taken some dangerous weapons out of the hands of those so afflicted. (The USA leaders see no distinction in those with mental illness and those “sane” folks.) Is the solution other civilized countries have taken perfect? Certainly not. But it begins leading them toward a notion of justice (the idea that each of us can come to expect equal treatment and an equal share in our community’s graces). I don’t believe that we’ll see the matter resolved in the USA in my lifetime. What some have categorized as our “cowboy” heritage and mindset would have to fade into the far distant past – making it easily forgotten. I don’t see that happening for several more generations.
In the interim, Deacon Greg’s prayer is a good start for us all.
Lord, have mercy. Amen.
Thank you also from me for this reflection in such a dire moment: war in Europe and many other parts of the world, shootings here in the States almost on a daily/weekly basis.
What struck me in a particular way were these words of the prayer:
“…Now I especially pray, help me be a memorial to you and
• heal what is broken,
• mend what is torn,
• strengthen what is weak,
• uplift all who feel forgotten, wounded, and alone…”
They came at the right moment when I was wondering whether going ahead with a project of mine or just stopping. The original purpose of such a project was exactly that: heal the broken, mend what is torn, …
So, yes, I’ll keep going ahead with my project which I offer to God, asking God to help me each step of the way. I cannot do much to change the world situation but I can do this and I will put my heart and mind into it.
Thank you again for sharing this prayer.