Fifth week of Lent, March 26-April 1 |
Our Lent is now more than halfway over. Has it been a meaningful one so far for you? Even if you haven’t had the chance to focus as much as you would like, if you haven’t been able to pray as you had hoped, there’s still time to re-center and recommit as we start to prepare for the last couple of weeks of Lent.
This Sunday’s reflection on Pierre Toussaint, written by Michael Howard, describes Toussaint’s care and compassion for those who suffered during the yellow fever and cholera epidemics in New York City in the early 1800s. Seeing images of the residents of New York wearing masks during that time, Michael writes, reminds us of our recent experience with the Covid19 pandemic, a health threat which has not ended.
|
This Lent, we are recognizing witnesses – the healthcare workers who faced the overwhelming crisis of the last three years have been brave witnesses to an ongoing global emergency. They have been witnesses to our communal physical, emotional, and mental distress, and we acknowledge with deep gratitude all that they have endured since the shutdowns began three years ago.
This fifth week of Lent, let us keep working together for a world of solidarity, where, as modeled by Venerable Pierre Toussaint, the health of our neighbors and those who are vulnerable is considered as valuable as our own.
|
|
|
|
In peace,
Judy Coode
Communications Director
Pax Christi USA
|
|
Loving God,
You created us with the capacity to heal, to restore and to offer peace.
Help us to be signs of love and compassion in the world today,
honoring every person we meet who is in need of healing.
When our burdens are heavy, renew us, remind us of our blessings,
and reawaken our commitment.
Amen.
|
This is the fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters,
to let the oppressed go free, to share your bread with the hungry
and shelter the homeless poor.
If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist, the wicked word,
if you give your bread to the hungry and relief to the oppressed,
your light will rise in the darkness. (Isaiah 58:6-7, 10)
All praise be yours, God our Creator,
as we wait in joyful hope
for the flowering of justice
and the fullness of peace.
All praise for this day, this season.
By our weekly fasting and prayer
cast out the spirit of war, of fear and mistrust,
and make us grow hungry for human kindness, thirsty for solidarity
with all the people of your dear earth.
May all our prayer, our fasting and our deeds
be done in the name of Jesus. Amen.
(Source: Archdiocese of Chicago)
|
|
Three years later: Responding to structural violence exposed by Covid19 |
|
In 2020, in response to the initial wave of the Covid19 pandemic, Marie Dennis (Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace, 2022 Teacher of Peace) wrote several essays reflecting on the complexity of the issues made visible by the pandemic. Though in many ways it feels as if the pandemic is behind us, consider reviewing these essays and reflecting on how the world has shifted -- or not? -- in the past three years.
|
|
ACTION
Tell Congress: Pass the PRO Act to protect workers' rights!
|
|
The right to be in a union, the right to organize and to collectively bargain are essential to maintain an economy that works for all of us; these rights for workers are also a longstanding component of Catholic social tradition.
Members of the House and Senate have reintroduced the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act–HR 20) which would make it easier for workers to join unions, a right that has been whittled away by corporate threats and retaliations. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the number of unions in 2022 was at an all-time low.
The Progressive Caucus Action Fund urges us to tell Congress to pass this important piece of legislation.
|
|
Organize a public witness lifting up the Way of the Cross on Good Friday |
|
Many Pax Christi USA local groups, members, partners and supporters often plan and stage a Way of the Cross public witness on Good Friday, connecting the sufferings of Christ during his passion with the suffering caused by violence, greed, poverty, sickness and war. WILL YOU ORGANIZE A WITNESS IN YOUR AREA? Some possibilities for witness:
-
Conduct a procession in your city or town, praying at key areas as Stations of the Cross. See resources on our Lenten webpage at this link (scroll to the bottom once you're on the page).
- Spend an hour leafletting or in prayer for peace and justice with signs outside the local office of your Member of Congress.
- Organize a Stations of the Cross in your parish, incorporating themes of peace and justice into each station. (Hold it earlier during Holy Week if it interferes with your parish's regular stations on Good Friday.)
- Gather at a key area dedicated to peace in your community (a peace pole?) and hold a short prayer service for peace.
- "Reclaim" a spot in your community that has suffered violence (like somewhere where an act of gun violence took place) and visibly pray for healing, sanctifying the area with holy water and a blessing.
- Hold a short, silent march with crosses (think the procession at the School of the Americas demonstration) or stand in silent witness at a key, busy street corner and have leaflets explaining your silent witness, calling for an end to war, violence, racism, injustice...
|
|
HELP BUILD THE PEACE OF CHRIST!
If you can make a contribution to support our
work for peace with justice, we'd be so grateful!
Just click on the donation button to the right to give securely and quickly online. Thanks!
|
|
|
Pax Christi USA
Weaving Threads of Peace for 50 Years
202-635-2741 | 415 Michigan Ave NE, Suite 240, Washington, DC 20017
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
