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Loving and Gracious God, Let me begin this letter to you with my gratitude for your love. I saw it last night in my life, in recognizing a suffering of long ago and in the courage I found to share it with my faith community. I saw your love in the way we responded to one another’s sufferings. It must be a winter time in our lives because there is lots of pain. I read Sirach and love the words on Wisdom. They remind me of Job, your responses to Job’s pain…that you created all the beauty in the world. The Celtic peoples call you “God of the Elements” and I can see that in the blustery winds of the chilly Midwest now. To use wind as a metaphor, we need the wind of your Spirit and your Wisdom to help us in our troubled times. Our U.S. leadership is walking a tightrope of “war – no more war”. Other nations are grappling with internal violence that seems unending. Where is your Spirit, Lord? How can we support our troups in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere and at the same time, bring peace? We need a “surge of diplomacy” as one diplomat put it…a worldwide “surge of diplomacy”. Jesus healing the boy possessed by a mute spirit reminds me of so many of us. As the boy was convulsed by the mean, mute spirit, so often in hard times, we cannot hear the Spirit within us urging us to healing. We are too immersed in coping with daily events without the time or energy to work with our pain. We hope to find the other side of pain but it is too hard to deal with it.
Be with us. Send the person/people who will help us in our healing. As a nation, as nations, give us the courage to reach out with caring and wisdom to heal our world’s wounds together. Jesus reached out to others and allowed others to touch him. Let us reach out to others and let our hearts touch one another. Thanks for listening. I pray that our winters turn to spring. Lovingly, Joan |