BY: SR. BARBARA McMULLEN, CDP
CALL TO PRAYER
Leader
In the name of God, our Creator
All
who invites us to a life of wholeness
Leader
In the name of God, the Risk-taker
All
who invites us to discover the unfinished self
Leader
In the name of God, the Spirit
All
who mediates the spirituality of transformation, be with us. Amen.
OPENING PRAYER
All
All-inclusive God, you called us to be in relationship with one another and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered. In our health care organization we are many different people; we come from many different places, have many different cultures. Open our hearts that we may be bold participants in finding the treasures of diversity among us. We pray in faith. Amen.
READING
Jericho Road by Martin Luther King Jr.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. We are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's road side, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. Compassion sees that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.
REFLECTION
How does the multicultural face of God emerge in our organization?
What are we doing and what can we do to address diversity of culture?
RESPONSE
Adapted from Eucharistic Prayer of the New Millennium (alternate stanzas)
- Great and generous God, we thank you as we remember your favor to us over ages past; your promise of new life encourages us to look to the future with hope in our hearts. We face the future knowing that you will continue to nourish and sustain us.
- Strengthen us as we embrace your world where so much life has been desecrated, so many resources exploited, so many opportunities wasted, and so many creatures deprived of your love and freedom.
All
Help us to unconditionally embrace the differences among us. May we strive to build a world where we respect the integrity and biodiversity of creation, protect the fragility of every lifeform, promote the growth of justice and truth, and foster love and forgiveness to diminish the power of warfare and strife among people. We commit ourselves to building up God's creation, so that all can live in true peace, and bring to fruition God's own reign of justice and love in our world. We make this prayer in the name of our God who makes all things new, now and forever. Amen.
Sources
Reading: Lou Anne M. Tighe, "Jericho Road" by Martin Luther King Jr., Growing in Hope, St. Mary's Press, MN, 1998, p. 52.
The theme of this prayer service focuses on diversity and multiculturalism. You may wish to find music from the richness of another culture to use at the beginning or end of the prayer service.
Sr. Barbara McMullen, CDP
Executive director of the Women of Providence in Collaboration and consultant for Prayer and Liturgy Resources
Providence Center
(314) 209-9181
"Prayer Service," a regular department in Health Progress, may be copied without prior permission.
Copyright © 2001 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
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