Notes from a Sojourn
May 28, 2020
“Come, Holy Spirit, power from on high:
make us agents of peace
and ministers of wholeness.”
This morning I read a report about an act of violence which troubles me greatly. Sadly, we do not need to look far to find violence and brokenness. On a daily basis, our lives are flooded with images, stories, and statistics related to our human capacity to bring harm to each other. Governments, industry, individuals, and even religious groups are routinely at the centre of the violence which plagues our world.
What is most troubling for me is how complicated these major conflicts are. There is rarely a simple solution that can be applied to the troubling situations of our life and our world.
In the face of systematic racism and ignorance, what can we do? What are our efforts worth when they are weighed against corporate greed and state militarism? How can our efforts for peace and wholeness ever make a difference?
These are honest questions. I fear that I do not have the answers to them. It is in the knowledge of my own smallness against such huge conflicts that I pray.
When we pray, we align our intention for the peace and wholeness of the world with God's holy desire for the same. But we pray for more than a simple and external solution to our human conflicts. We pray that God will draw us deeper into the suffering of our world and that we might become agents of God's power.
May we be strengthened to become agents of peace and ministers of wholeness.
Come Holy Spirit, come.
Patrick+
