dedicated to friends at little rock -


The following prayer was found at the Ravensbruck death camp where 92,000 women and children died. It was scrawled on wrapping paper near a dead child.

'LORD, remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us; remember the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering -our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this, and when they come to judgement, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness...'


dear rockies, thanks for sharing this excerpt. i was reminded of our regular sunday gathering where we broke the Word and confronted each other with the reality of our lives. i have grown much because of you- life is a little more grey at times...the thin line between universal and personal suffering becomes clearer and worn out as the years go by. The erosion is a good one...and shakes us out of our own air-conditioned comfort and security. i remember praying with you each sunday evening at st mary's...sharing everything from grace to humour and tidbits, or painful ambivalence and sometimes a ridicule or two about the state of our lives...prayer makes us put our petty complaints aside and turn inward, challenged to unite our temporal needs to the urgent needs of a forgotten world and its abandoned corners, right outside the safe shelter of our room...done often without ever knowing or expecting how the cry of prisoners at guantanamo bay will be heard, or the needs of a starving child in dafur be met...a cruel irony that we would pray so helplessly in total security while the rest languish toward death...our smiles an inconsequential reflection of human fraility and the persistent knocking of our hearts which our Lord continually begs us to answer...the cost and price of fidelity even as we serve and meet him and others in our world...

discipleship-
our sharing of mystery, in faith and suffering... our sharing of Christ, in the 'burnt women, men and children' (Merton: 7th Storey Mountain) of our world... amen