A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land: An Adapted Version 1

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1 A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land An Adapted Version Introduction Racism can be identified as America s original sin. It remains a blot on our national life and continues to cause acts and attitudes of hatred, as recent events have made evident. The need to condemn and combat the demonic ideologies of white supremacy, neo-nazism and racism has become especially urgent at this time. Our efforts must be constantly led and accompanied by prayer but they must also include concrete action. People of faith call Christ to heal the wounds of racism throughout our land. Opening Prayer Wake Me Up Lord ( Adapted ) Wake me up Lord, so that the evil of racism finds no home within me. Keep watch over my heart Lord, and remove from me any barriers to your grace, that may offend, oppress, and imprison my brothers and sisters. Fill my spirit Lord, so that I may more willingly and lovingly give services of justice and peace. Clear my mind Lord, and use it for your glory. Remind us Lord that you said, "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." And finally, instill within me a desire to be a peacemaker, Reading from Scripture: Luke 10:25-37 for I too wish to be a child of God. Amen. There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land: An Adapted Version 1

2 and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.' Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, " The one who treated him with mercy. " Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." Pastoral Reflection: Let s be a church where Black lives matter By Father Bryan Massingale, Fordham University Recently, Fordham University sponsored an interfaith prayer service for racial justice. The catalysts for this event were the ongoing police-involved killings of Black persons mostly unarmed men in our nation. I preached a homily in which I recalled a talk I had given, where I had spoken of the challenge to a Christian conscience in the aftermath of the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown and Eric Garner and... Most haunting in the title of that talk were the... The scandal that brought us together was the realization that to the roster of cities such as Ferguson, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Chicago we now must add Baltimore, Tulsa, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Baton Rouge, San Diego, and... The never-ending tragic litany leaves my soul weary, numb, and tempted to despair over the incessant loss of life despite the protests, petitions, and prayers. Whenever I write about this issue, reactions are highly critical, some of which contend that I show a lack of appreciation for the service police officers render to society. Pondering such reactions has led me to two realizations. First, many people are unable to distinguish between supporting professional and fair-minded police officers and criticizing a broken and unjust system of police practices and training. Yes, we can and must support those who heroically perform the difficult profession of public safety. But we also need to be critical of policing that subjects citizens of color to surveillance, interrogation, arrest, and abuse that would be considered intolerable if routinely experienced by white people. The U.S. Department of Justice found in its investigation of police departments across the nation patterns and practices of racially discrimi-natory behavior that violate the constitutional rights of citizens of color. A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land: An Adapted Version 2

3 Despite this objective evidence, and the many studies that show how Black and white defendants are treated very differently in the criminal justice system even when charged with similar crimes, there is still pervasive denial on the part of many whites. My second realization has been that there is no way to speak honestly about race without making white people uncomfortable. It is not difficult to understand why. The categories of black and white justify unequal access to jobs, neighborhoods, and schools. Race in America is about the rationalization of social inequality, especially white preference and dominance. That level of honest acknowledgment is something for which many are unprepared and a conversation for which this nation is ill equipped. More troubling is that white Christians are among the least likely to believe that there is a systemic problem. A recent Public Religion Research Institute report related how over 80 percent of Black Christians believe that police-involved killings of Black people are part of a much larger picture of racial injustice. An almost equal amount of white Christians (about 70 percent) believe the opposite, holding that such deaths are mainly isolated incidents with no connection to one another. Seventy-one percent of Catholics hold this view. Indeed, white non-christians are more likely to see a systemic problem than white Christians. White Christians, then, are not disposed to believe the evidence and hear the testimonies of their Black sisters and brothers. The body of Christ not only bears the racial wounds of the larger society; in some ways, it is also even more scarred and wounded. All this underscores how remarkable the prayer service at Fordham was. Such prayer needs to take place in churches and chapels across our country. It is a necessary first step as we implore God s help to overcome what the U.S. bishops call a radical evil that destroys lives and mocks the image of God in which we are all created. Examination of Conscience: A Look at Myself in the Mirror An examination of conscience is an opportunity to adore God, recognize God s presence within and around us, confess the ways by which we fall short, express our gratitude for our strengths, and to ask God for something or to intercede for someone. Let us examine our conscience in light of the sin of racism, asking ourselves and answering the following questions: *If doing the examination of conscience alone, please click here for piano accompaniment.* Adoration Have I fully loved God and fully loved my neighbor as myself? Education Have I done enough to inform myself about the sin of racism, its roots, and its historical and contemporary manifestations? Have I opened my heart to see how unequal access to economic opportunity, jobs, housing, and education on the basis of skin color, race, or ethnicity, has denied and continues to deny the equal dignity of others? Confession Have I caused pain to others by my actions or my words that offended my brother or my sister? A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land: An Adapted Version 3

4 Is there a root of racism within me that blurs my vision of who my neighbor is? Have I ever witnessed an occasion when someone "fell victim" to personal, institutional, systematic or social racism and I did or said nothing, leaving the victim to address their pain alone? Have I ever witnessed an occasion when someone "fell victim" to personal, institutional, systematic or social racism with me inflicting the pain, acting opposite of love of God and love of neighbor? Thanksgiving Have I ever lifted up and aided a person who "fell victim" to personal, institutional, systematic or social racism and paid a price for extending mercy to the other? How did I react? Did my faith grow? Am I willing to grow even more in faith through my actions? Supplication What do I want most from God today? For whom do I want God to be mindful today? I recognize that racism manifests in my individual thoughts, attitudes, actions, and inactions. It also manifests in social structures and unjust systems the perpetuate centuries of racial injustice. For my individual actions and my participation in unjust structures, I seek forgiveness and move towards reconciliation. I look into my heart and ask for the will and the strength to help contribute to the healing of racism in my time. I Seek Forgiveness and Reconciliation to Act Justly It is written in Ezekiel 36:26: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Pope Francis reminds us that the Lord "calls each of us by our name: he knows us by name; he looks at us; he waits for us; he forgives us; he is patient with us." Receiving God's grace and forgiveness requires a response. Pope Francis encourages the believer: "Whoever experiences Divine mercy is impelled to be an architect of mercy among the least and the poor." Now let us do what God requires: "Only to do justice and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8). Closing Prayer God of Heaven and Earth, you created the one human family and endowed each person with great dignity. Aid us, our peers, our families, and our governments, we pray, in overcoming the sin of racism. Grant us your grace in eliminating this blight from our hearts, our communities, A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land: An Adapted Version 4

5 our social and civil institutions. Fill our hearts with love for you and our neighbor so that we may work with you in healing our land from racial injustice. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. We have prayed and now, with changed hearts, let us move our feet to action. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen. A Prayer Service for Racial Healing in Our Land: An Adapted Version 5