February Edition of "On the Line"

Pax Christi USA had issued the February edition of its newsletter, "On the Line." Click here to read it.

Litany for Peace

From the Pax Christi USA website:

Litany for Peace by Linda Friern and Tony Bartlett, in The Fire of Peace

Let us pray to Jesus Christ that we may be set free from the chains of violence and war.
Jesus the Christ, by your cross and resurrection
… deliver us.
by your nonviolence and love
by your witness to truth
by your passion and death
by your victory over the grave
from the desire for power
from the conspiracy of silence
from the negation of life
from the worship of weapons
from the celebration of killing
from the slaughter of the innocent
from the extermination of the weak
from the nightmare of hunger
from the politics of terror
from a false peace
from relying on weapons
from the spiral of armaments
from plundering the earth’s resources
from the despair of this age
from global suicide.
By the light of the Gospel
… give us your peace.
by the good news for the poor
by your healing and wounds
by faith in your word
by a hunger and thirst for justice
by the coming of your reign
by the outpouring of the Spirit
by reconciliation of enemies
by gentleness and nonviolence
by the truth that sets us free
by prophecy and witness
by persecution because of your name
by the power of your love.
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,
… have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,
… have mercy on us.
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,
… grant us peace.

More on Haiti

Just after I hit "publish post," I received two e-mails regarding the situation in Haiti. One was from Pax Christi USA saying that it's not yet possible to communicate with Pax Christi Haiti, but to funnel donations through CRS (see previous post). The second e-mail was from our friends at Partners in Health, who have been asked to join the UN's efforts to aid the sick and injured. Here's that message:

In an urgent email from Port-au-Prince, Louise Ivers, our clinical director in Haiti, appealed for assistance from her colleagues in the Central Plateau: "Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS... Temporary field hospital by us at UNDP needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us."
Donate now to support our earthquake relief efforts.
The earthquake has destroyed much of the already fragile and overburdened infrastructure in the most densely populated part of the country. A massive and immediate international response is needed to provide food, water, shelter, and medical supplies for tens of thousands of people.

With our hospitals and our highly trained medical staff in place in Haiti, Partners In Health is already mobilizing resources and preparing plans to bring medical assistance and supplies to areas that have been hardest hit.

Both our teams in Boston and Haiti are already mobilizing to deliver resources as quickly as possible to the places where they are needed most.

Advent Reflection from Pax Christi

While reminding you that SCC Advent reflections can still be found on the Director's Message page of www.quellenspiritualcenter.org let's look at Megan McKenna's Pax Christi reflection for today:


Monday, December 21, 2009
Song of Solomon 2:8-14 or Zephaniah 3:14-18a ~ Luke 1:39-45

What is the quality of our waiting: Is it intense, passionate, on edge, concentrated? Do we wait for the coming of the Word made flesh into the world and into our own flesh like a lover waits? What are we expecting this Word-of-God-made-flesh to say to us? For Christians in the northern hemisphere, it is now the heart of winter; in the southern climes, it is beginning to turn cooler and the rains are coming. We read in the Song of Solomon that when those who seek each other meet, it is the fullness and harvest of spring and summer and the lushness of blossom. Are we watching and listening for Love to appear in our midst, seize hold of us, and bring the world back to life?

There is an anonymous saying: "That which you are seeking is always seeking you." God is always seeking us. Do we move with haste and the freedom of hope? Or do we just learn to stop stock still and look? God is everywhere. There is no place where God is not. Now, we are being taught to look for the presence of God in every human being. Are we learning to see the shining presence of holiness and love hidden and seeping out in the face of everyone?

We hear the same gospel as yesterday-did we catch the revelation? We are all blessed. We have all heard the Word of God that has been proclaimed to us. We have all believed in it-to one degree or another. God's word will be fulfilled in us, as it was in Elizabeth and Mary. Because of the moment of the Incarnation that continues through time and history, we are always being met by the Spirit of God. Irénée Guilane Dioh, an African writer, says, "Every word and every being come knocking at your door, bringing you their mystery. If you open to them, they will flood you with their riches."

For more resources for prayer, study and action this Advent season, click here.

Vigils for Survival

A message from Pax Christi USA:

As a member of the climate change crisis coalition, 350.org, Pax Christi USA is supporting efforts to influence the gathering of leaders at the Copenhagen climate conference next week. In the middle of the conference, 350.org has called for days of action, December 11-13, to highlight the urgency of this moment for action on climate change. In particular, candlelight "vigils for survival" are being held around the world as actions of solidarity with nations whose very survival is threatened by the climate crisis. Click here for more information. (For those of you in the NY/NJ area, there are a few vigils in Manhattan and one in Morristown.)

National Call-In Day on Afghanistan

From Pax Christi USA:
Even as momentum is building for an exit strategy for Afghanistan, we need to keep the pressure on. On Tuesday, June 16, a number of groups are participating in a national call-in day for an Afghanistan exit strategy, in support of Rep. McGovern's bill, HR 2404. Pax Christi USA has been a strong supporter of this legislation and we're being asked to help mobilize Catholic Members of Congress as co-sponsors. Click here to access three actions Pax Christi is asking us to take.

Pax Christi USA Announces 2009 Teacher of Peace

From the Pax Christi press release:

Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement, has recognized the life and witness of Bishop Leroy Matthiesen by naming him the 2009 recipient of the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award. Pax Christi USA first gave the award to Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, in 1978 and has since recognized some of the most significant U.S. Catholic activists for peace and justice of the past 30 years, including actor Martin Sheen; poet and priest Daniel Berrigan, S.J.; and Dead Man Walking author Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J. Bishop Matthiesen's life has been defined by his long and consistent advocacy for peace and justice, from his activism as a young priest on issues of racism to his prophetic call for the abolition of nuclear weapons as a bishop with a nuclear weapons assembly facility in his diocese.

"We believe Bishop Matthiesen fulfills the criteria for the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award and exemplifies the theme 'to reach peace, teach peace,'" reads his nomination, submitted under the names of 20 individuals, including seven former Teacher of Peace Award recipients. "It is now time-long overdue-to honor a courageous bishop, who suffered for his conscientious stands for justice and peace."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Ten Days in May: Day 1

A Prayer for World Peace
by Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Great God, who has told us

“Vengeance is mine,”

save us from ourselves,

save us from the vengeance in our hearts

and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire

to hurt as we have been hurt,

to punish as we have been punished,

to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes

to listen rather than to judge,

to trust rather than to fear,

to try again and again to make peace

even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace to be our best selves.

We ask for the vision to be builders of the

human community rather than its destroyers.

We ask for the humility as a people

to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes

to bequeath to the children of the world

to come more than the failures of our own making.

We ask for the heart it takes to care for all the peoples

of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israel,

as well as for ourselves.

Give us the depth of soul, O God, to constrain our might,

to resist the temptations of power,

to refuse to attack the attackable,

to understand that vengeance begets violence,

and to bring peace - not war - wherever we go.

For You, O God, have been merciful to us.

For You, O God, have been patient with us.

For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful and patient

and gracious and trusting

with these others who you also love.

This we ask through, Jesus,

the one without vengeance in his heart.

This we ask forever and ever.

Amen.

"Ten Days in May"

May 3rd is the 25th anniversary of the U.S. bishops' pastoral on peace, The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise, Our Response. To mark this anniversary, Pax Christi USA has provided resources for prayer, study and action as part of the "Ten Days in May" peace campaign, focusing on commemorating the peace pastoral but especially putting an emphasis on the last words of the title of the pastoral: "Our Response." At the center of this campaign is Pax Christi's new sign-on statement, "God's Promise Endures: The Challenge of Peace Today." This statement was crafted to help revitalize the discussion in our Church that can help us to articulate and embrace a true theology of peace as central to our faith. Also, don't forget to check the Pax Christi USA web site regularly.