Day 874: Sunday, August 7, 2022

Heal the wounds opened with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mend the fabric of the human family. Will in us never to repeat this evil.

Today we remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki in solidarity with the Church in Japan and with all people who want peace. Let's reflect on the words that John Paul II shared at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima on February 25, 1981:

“To the Creator of nature and man, of truth and beauty I pray: Hear my voice, for it is the voice of the victims of all wars and violence among individuals and nations; Hear my voice, for it is the voice of all children who suffer and will suffer when people put their faith in weapons and war; Hear my voice when I beg you to instill into the hearts of all human beings the wisdom of peace, the strength of justice and the joy of fellowship

Hear my voice, for I speak for the multitudes in every country and in every period of history who do not want war and are ready to walk the road of peace; Hear my voice and grant insight and strength so that we may always respond to hatred with love, to injustice with total dedication to justice, to need with the sharing of self, to war with peace. O God, hear my voice and grant unto the world your everlasting peace.”

O Divine Spirit, keeper of the atoms and stars: You made us collaborators in creation, but we have pilfered the secrets of ordered existence and justified their immoral use in the name of "security" and "peace." We could say then that we didn't know the consequences… but we know now.

We have abused the glue of the universe. We have made and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction instead of saying "No" to their use for evil. Fear and presumption have driven us to be ready to annihilate untold lives and make areas of the earth uninhabitable.

Open our eyes to see how small and fragile the planet is and how the destruction of any human being diminishes all. Heal the wounds opened with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mend the fabric of the human family. Will in us never to repeat this evil.

Forgive us God for our participation in the unthinkable. Help us move into a new way of thinking and acting.

We look around us and We Believe in God, the Creator of all that is. The Holy One who manifests the Divine Presence in ALL that exists. We look and see the Divine as Creator, our Mother and Father, the source from which all the Universe flows.

We look again and see the Divine presence as Word. The blueprint and plan for everything, without whom nothing that exists has come into being. The Word is Truth made flesh, who walked and lived among us, and who set us free from self-condemnation and fear.

We look yet a third time and see the Divine Spirit, the very Breath of God, who breathed into the cosmos, and brought forth life. She still breathes in us, fills us, lives within us as our breath, our life. We believe that She, the Spirit, is the very Love of God, the compassion that holds the Universe together.

We believe that She came to the disciples as Wind and Fire. She gave them the wisdom to know the truth that everything and everyone belongs. She gave them the breath to speak boldly, setting ablaze the course of their lives and forever changing the path of human history. We believe that Her divine breath comes as a gentle breeze or a roaring wind. She gently coaxes the flickering flame in our hearts into a blazing source of love, power, and courage.

We see in this Spirit Advocate the One who teaches us the truth of the power of Love. We see this Spirit as guiding human wisdom through time. Through Her we live in courage, in the hope and desire to awaken in all creation the joy of life in God, and to all. We give our Great Amen to this Divine Spirit, who pours out life and ‘life abundant’ into every human heart.

On the Pulse of the Morning

So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,

The African, the Native American, the Sioux,

The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,

The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,

The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,

The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher…

History, despite its wrenching pain,

Cannot be unlived, but if faced

With courage, need not be lived again.

-- Maya Angelou: From Pulse of the Morning c1993