Dear Friends,
I want to offer a response to the horrific and tragic shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh over the weekend. We all are deeply grieved by this hate-filled act of violence against innocent people, an act of hateful anti-Semitism. Too much of this kind of violence and hatred is going on in our country today. Our hearts are broken. We feel deep sadness and pain.
I am not sure that all of you know this but my step daughter and her family are Jewish. Her husband is a conservative Rabbi in Kansas City. My three grandchildren who live there are Jewish. Three years ago their Jewish Community Center was attacked by a lunatic shooter. Two people were killed. It was a sad, tragic day that hit very close to home, and so does the massacre in Pittsburgh.
One thing I notice about the Jewish community is that they just get stronger when these things happen. They strengthen their resolve to endure. I think that is good approach for all of us. To strengthen our commitment to prayer, compassion, justice, and love for all people. To work for ways to protect the safety of all our American citizens, especially our ethnic and religious minorities.
Over the past couple of days since the shooting in Pittsburgh, the Prayer of St. Francis keeps coming to my mind. I have prayed it a couple of times. I value this prayer because it actually calls us to BE and DO something, to BE instruments of God’s peace, love, kindness, forgiveness, etc. I am including the Prayer of St. Francis below for your use and comfort.
Keep up your prayers, meditation and contemplative practice. Be comforted and strengthened by God’s grace.
Sending peace and lovingkindness,
Paul
A Prayer attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.jsu