Tuesday, December 2, 2008

In Remembrance of the Four U.S. Churchwomen


From Pax Christi USA:

In remembrance of Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan (martyred December 2, 1980 for working for the liberation of the impoverished of El Salvador):

Loving God, we ask for mercy for the hardness of our hearts, as we encounter the truth of injustice, social violence, poverty and the death of your martyrs for the cause of your truth. We ask that our hearts may be changed from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. Creator God, we ask for mercy for the fear and denial that shields our souls from the encounter with truth, especially when it means that we must change our lives, our preconceptions and assumptions, our understanding of the world and the place of the United States in that world. We ask for the courage to open ourselves to truth and its consequences in our lives. Tender God who cries out in the hearts of the persecuted and the suffering, we ask for mercy for the times we close our hearts to our own liberation, when we refuse your loving offer of redemption, freedom and joy because we cherish security built on our own terms more than yours. We pray that we may be healed from our fear, hear the cries of your people, and allow ourselves to be set free. O God, in this Advent season make us instruments of liberation and witnesses to truth. This we ask in the names of our four sisters who gave their lives for the truth that sets free. Amen.

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