From A Grounded Lent by Diana Butler Bass
Quote:
For far too long, religion has combined with nationalism or ethnicity to claim divine legitimacy for human conquests and crusades, a historical Gordian know if ever there was one. In the 21st century, we can no longer live with this problem, for the knot will surely become a noose for the whole human race.” (Grounded, p. 242)
Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from evry nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
Thought
From Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together – black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu – a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.” (MLK, 1967)
Prayer
God, You are the source of human dignity, and it is in your image that we are created.
Pour out on us the spirit of love and compassion.
Enable us to reverence each person, to reach out to anyone in need, to value and appreciate those who differ from us, to share the resources of our nation, to receive the gifts offered to us by people from other cultures.
Grant that we may always promote the justice and acceptance that ensures lasting peace and racial harmony.
Help us to remember that we are one world and one family.
Amen.
(from the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council)