Dear Friends,
We pray you are safe and well.
At this time of year, the Church invites us to pray for Refugees and Immigrants. In the reflection below, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas challenges us as a country to ponder our hardening of heart toward immigrants and refugees and hear God knocking at our door, wanting to come in.
We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in healthcare, in the workplace, in the Church--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.
In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that in God’s economy of abundance, when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.
We hope and pray that you and your loved ones experience genuine peace of mind and heart, and remain in good health during this challenging time.
May this New Year beginning be a time of peace, of healing and hope, of the infusion of joy in your life!
With our love and care,
Ron and Jean
MEDITATION 253: Open Your Heart and let My People Come In
Statement of El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz on border situation
Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, greets a Salvadoran migrant June 27, 2019. Bishop Seitz walked and prayed with a group of migrants at the Lerdo International Bridge in El Paso as they sought asylum in the U.S. (CNS photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters)
By Catholic News Service • Posted June 28, 2019
The following is the text of a statement by Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, on the immigration situation at the border at El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that he delivered June 27 before he crossed the Lerdo International Bridge that connects the U.S. and Mexico:
As a Catholic and Christian leader on the border, I am often called to be a doctor of the soul. Standing here at the U.S.-Mexico border, how do we begin to diagnose the soul of our country?
A government and society which view fleeing children and families as threats; a government which treats children in U.S. custody worse than animals; a government and society who turn their backs on pregnant mothers, babies and families and make them wait in Ciudad Juarez without a thought to the crushing consequences on this challenged city. … This government and this society are not well. We suffer from a life-threatening case of hardening of the heart.
In a day when we prefer to think that prejudice and intolerance are problems of the past, we have found a new acceptable group to treat as less than human, to look down upon and to fear. And should they speak another language or are brown or black … well, it is that much more easy to stigmatize them.
Why can’t we put ourselves in their shoes? Because we have decided they are not our neighbors, we have decided that they are aliens and illegals. We think these parents simply have no right to save their children from violence or malnutrition. They have no right to a job or to support their families. They have no right to reunite with family.
For this heart-sick government and society, these people should have stayed home, given into hopelessness and watched helplessly as their children suffer. Would we rather they die on the banks of the Rio Grande than trouble us with their presence?
But we have not suffered the mistreatment meted out to them by those who represent our country. We haven’t really felt their hunger and cold. And it is not our children who will be denied food, water and tenderness tonight. We Americans need our hearts checked. Our hearts have grown too cold and too hard and that bodes ill for the health of our nation.
In the America of today, is there no more Golden Rule? Have we forgotten the lessons of Scripture? Have we forgotten the commandment to love? Have we forgotten God?
But here on the border, he knocks. In the struggle for hope and freedom and family, he knocks. In the lives of Jakelin and Felipe and Oscar and Valeria, he knocks. In our neighbors here today, he knocks. He knocks. He knocks. He knocks.
Prayer for Migrants and Refugees
Jesus, when you multiplied the loaves and fishes, you provided more than food for the body, you offered us the gift of yourself, the gift which satisfies every hunger and quenches every thirst! Your disciples were filled with fear and doubt, but you poured out your love and compassion on the migrant crowd, welcoming them as brothers and sisters.
Jesus, today you call us to welcome the members of God's family who come to our land to escape oppression, poverty, persecution, violence, and war. Like your disciples, we too are filled with fear and doubt and even suspicion. We build barriers in our hearts and in our minds.
Jesus, help us by your grace,
To banish fear from our hearts, that we may embrace each of your children as our own brother and sister;
To welcome migrants and refugees with joy and generosity, while responding to their many needs;
To realize that you call all people to your holy mountain to learn the ways of peace and justice;
To share of our abundance as you spread a banquet before us;
To give witness to your love for all people, as we celebrate the many gifts they bring.
We praise you and give you thanks for the family you have called together from so many people. We see in this human family a reflection of the divine unity of the one Most Holy Trinity in whom we make our prayer: Creator, Word, and Holy Spirit. Amen.