After being rejected by every seminary in the country,/ Augustus Tolton,/ a freed slave,/ was the first African American to be ordained a priest from Rome for the United States./ He wrote,/ "We should welcome all people into the church, not send them away."/ May we learn and practice./ We pray to the Lord.
Have we given up believing in the power of love which God has put into our hearts?/ We pray for homes and families,/ communities and neighborhoods,/ churches, synagogues and mosques,/ governments and nations,/ schools and businesses./ May we believe still that love can be transformative./ We pray to the Lord.
In the wintertime,/ we pray for those who live without proper shelter,/ for first responders and helpers/ for those who work outdoors./ As the Winter Olympics draw to a close/ we pray for a more peaceful world,/ even as in our immaturity before God/ we continue to amass great armies capable of terrible death and destruction./ We pray to the Lord.
Lent begins in eleven days./ May it be a time of deep, inner awareness and repentance./ And as our country carries still the great stain of racism,/ may we acknowledge how racial prejudice,/ anti-Semitism or any kind of 'other-ism'/ which is not the way of Christ,/ may have invaded our lives./ We pray to the Lord.
Tuesday is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter./ We pray for Pope Francis/ asking for him to be sustained in health,/ strength and joy in his mission./ We pray for those who do not understand him,/ resist or even reject him./ For the healing of divisions which afflict the Church./ We prat to the Lord.
A TV spot reveals that ninety percent of the world's elephants are gone./ There are only about five hundred tigers left in the wild./ Many animal and plant species are threatened with extinction in our time./ We ask for the mind-heart revolution needed to save our sanctuary planet./ We pray to the Lord.
