It’s hard to find words. But I have one, Enough! I saw a post this morning that calmly pleaded, if you have a platform use it. Mine is a small platform but I want to share my prayers and hopes.

I pray for peace. I pray for the people of Minnesota and an elimination of the fear and injustice they are experiencing. I pray for children, like 12 year old Max with a soccer medal around his neck, crying to his mother that another boy told him he was going to be arrested, because they look different even if they were born in the US (and I share Max’ tearful sentiment, “it’s just not nice”). I pray for other states that are beginning to experience the same insane use of discrimination. I pray for our country and a restoration of the values we have held dear for so long. I pray for the honest police, military and elected officials who desire to uphold the laws of our country. I pray for leaders, religious and civil, to step up and do what is right. I pray for a restoration of respect between other countries and the United States. I pray for each of us as we struggle to find a balance between staying informed, knowing what and when to speak up, and still maintain respect, peace and hope in our hearts and minds and with each other.

Please know that this is no longer, if it ever was, about legal deportations. We’ve had those conducted by past administrations and not heard about them. Why? Because each person was given due process. This is also not about legit law enforcement and military doing their jobs. I watched law enforcement calmly arrest clergy and interfaith leaders who were protesting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport on Friday. I did not see guns drawn, pepper spray or harassment. This is about unlawful and unjust discrimination and bigotry. It has to stop.

So, today, I turn to one of my favorite prayers, attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. I pray it so that the words make a home in my heart and mind so that then I can, in turn, sow love, pardon, faith, hope, light and joy in my small way.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Please dear God, hear our prayers.

I wish you abundant peace, hope and calm this week. Deena

Image: art of St. Francis taken during my pilgrimage to Assisi.