Hope and Prayers for our Country on Election Day
“On the brink of a national election in which hope and fear run so tremblingly deep and the order of the world feels so trenchantly locked in conflict, the cosmic unity of love feels like an unreasonable and scandalous hope. But as we each live and dance, pray and vote ever further into a reality beyond they and us, we are, in T. S. Eliot’s words, ‘folded in a single party.’ Our prayer becomes the one word We, and in that prayer—and perhaps that prayer alone—we will be raised up, ripened, and restored.”
-Br. Keith Nelson. Society of Saint John the Evangelist.
Whatever happens today, this must be our mission and our ministry. Our country is coming apart at its seams. Our only hope is to listen, listen to each other and try to bandage and heal the wounds of our country in every aspect of our lives. Families are divided. Brothers and sisters are divided. Hatred fills our airspaces as we breathe. We take in the blaring sound and toxic smell of division into our bodies. Our bodies now ache. We need to find a hate and injustice recovery group. We cannot move forward without a radical change. Our experience tells us that revenge against those who have harmed us, each other, and our country will not solve our problem.
We have learned more and more in these last four years about economic and social injustice than we may have wanted to hear about. We thought we were doing so well, and then we are made aware of a different scene. People are literally dying because of our deep divisions. Wearing a protective covering against a deadly virus has become a political issue. How did this happen? A better question is what are we going to do about it to move forward? We are killing each other because of our different political views. It is what 12-step groups would call insanity.
So, naming the insanity is a start. Then we must listen to those who are hurting all around us. That means all of us. We must pray for each other. Every day. Every hour. Every second. We must pray for love for our neighbor to come back into our hearts. There is hope if some can remember what that was like, or even better recall how to spell it.
If each of us can breathe out love into the toxic air around us, I think we will have a chance.
Joanna. joannaseibert.com