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Marian Pallister, Justice & Peace Commissioner for Argyll & the Isles, reflects on the comfort of online prayer.  Weekly blog.

‘Click to pray’ may sound like a step too far along the technological pathway for some. But just as so many find great comfort in being able to share in the Mass online – and now we are relying on Facebook live streaming and Youtube once more – Pope Francis’ Worldwide Prayer Network offers spiritual encouragement where and when we need it.

I’ve always found it very moving to think of the millions of people around the world praying together. Now we do that with the help of technology, not just in our own private thoughts. Clicking to pray Pope Francis’ intention for January earlier this month (https://clicktopray.org/ ), I saw that over 9,500 people had already shared the reflection that day, and prayed for human fraternity – ‘May the Lord give us the grace to live in full fellowship with our brothers and sisters of other religions, praying for one another, open to all.’

In the previous 30 days, 787,653 prayers had been added to the website. There are links to social media, and there’s an app – as well as a hold-in-your-hand, good old-fashioned booklet that you can keep at your bedside or wherever your ‘prayer space’ might be.

Since last March, isolation has been a problem for so many of us. The need for someone to turn to prompted Frances Gallagher, Justice and Peace Scotland’s communications guru, to post links and phone numbers on social media and our website to help when we’re feeling low. We really need that sort of lifeline – and my own ‘must have’ is the link to the worldwide prayer network that Pope Francis set up in 2020.

I’ve found that some of my molehills have become mountains over the past months, simply because I can’t share with others. Before Lockdown One, our parish had a prayer group, and bringing our personal and societal concerns to the group, articulating with others and with God our hopes and fears, brought spiritual comfort. Some of the issues that our Justice and Peace group went on to tackle began with shared prayers in the prayer group. 

I know that if we had been meeting in our prayer group when things went haywire in the United States, our prayers would have reached out to all concerned. I needed an alternative and went to the ‘Pray with the Network’ page on the Click to Pray website. There, someone had posted this prayer, shared on social media: ‘Lord, Please stay close to all the angry people who stormed the US Capitol, to all the leaders who encourage them and to those who condemn them. Help our country to see its dark sides and to work toward reconciliation. Amen’. 

What a forgiving prayer, obviously from someone in the United States, and what a comfort and guide to those of us watching the confusing news unfolding from that country.

In what looks like being a longer lockdown than we thought, I know such shared prayers will help me – maybe you could also give it a click! 
 

New Year and a New Route – a reflection from Justice and Peace Scotland chair Jill Kent as we begin 2021.

Well, 2021 has finally arrived. During the past few weeks I have heard many people mention that they could not wait for the new year. But now that it is here, everything has not magically changed with the turning of the calendar. It is still dark and cold outside and the news of the pandemic has got worse, not better. So how do we keep our heads up?

Maybe we can reflect on the messages that we listened to throughout the Christmas season. The great light came into the world! In the past year I have certainly been inspired by the many people who stepped into the darkness when they saw a need in their own community. I was touched by the generosity I saw all around me. From food deliveries to people checking on neighbours and vulnerable friends and relatives, I witnessed many acts of kindness.

Then the Gospel from this past Sunday recounted the Magi following the star and being told in a dream to return by a different route. Return by a different route! That may be the message that we need to hear.

This pandemic is not over yet. There are still great needs out there. When my friends and family are all doing fine, maybe it is time for me to look a little further. Perhaps now is the time to leave the comforts of the people I know and understand and work to encounter and understand those who are different from me. In walking a different route, I may be able to make a real difference in someone’s life as well as my own. There may be someone who is lonely or hungry or feeling other pressures, hoping and praying that someone will hear his or her cry. 

But what different route should I take? The Church gives us some good guidance. Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical, is full of ideas. Pope Francis has boldly written down a vision challenging us to care for each other as brothers and sisters, recognising our common humanity and treating everyone with dignity. It also calls us to respond to the many people in need due to a wide range of circumstances.

Justice and Peace Scotland just so happens to have a very similar vision for our Church.

My parish has a Justice and Peace group that I have joined with others to pray, learn and share ideas over the years. If you are interested there may be one in your area too. It is a place where you can find support and friendship with others who also want to make a difference. But if not, there are many ideas and resources on the Justice and Peace Scotland website to get you started.

So my challenge to myself, and maybe you too if you are interested, is this: Take a step, no matter how small, and start walking along a new route that will make the world a better place in 2021.

In this season of goodwill, Sr Isabel Smyth of the Scottish Bishops’ Conference Interreligious Dialogue Committee reflects on Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti.  Weekly blog.

Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, begins with the story of St Francis of Assisi’s meeting with Sultan Malek al-Kamil of Egypt in the 13th century during the fifth crusade. Whatever St Francis’ intentions were, the two were men of peace, recognised each other as such, and spent time conversing about the things of God.

The Sultan had offered peace to the Christian army five times and sought peaceful coexistence with Christians.  Francis had urged the crusader not to attack the Muslims during the siege of Damietta. After this encounter, Francis encouraged his brothers not to engage in arguments or disputes with Muslims and non-believers, but to use opportunities to witness to their own faith by actions rather than words. 

Fratelli Tutti ends with another Christian’s encounter with Islam. Charles de Foucauld lived as a hermit in the Sahara desert in Algeria among the Tuareg, a Berber ethnic group in North Africa. He was murdered there and is considered to be a Christian martyr. His approach was like that of St Francis, living close to and sharing the life of the people. He preached, not through sermons but through the example of his life, studying the language and culture of the Tuareg and publishing the first Tuareg-French dictionary.  He was challenged and impressed by the Tuaregs’ faith.  

He wrote, “The sight of their faith, of these people living in God’s constant presence, afforded me a glimpse into something greater and truer than earthly preoccupations.”   In Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis describes him as one who “made a journey of transformation towards feeling a brother to all”.  

An example of this brotherhood is seen in the friendship between Pope Francis and Ahmed el- Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo.  They signed a document entitled Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together at an interfaith gathering in Abu Dhabi in February 2019.  Pope Francis explicitly acknowledges the encouragement of the Grand Imam in the writing of Fratelli Tutti, which develops some of the great themes raised in the Human Fraternity document. In that document, the two religious leaders declared “God has created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity, and has called them to live together as brothers and sisters.”  

This Christmas, a time of goodwill to all, nothing could be more inspiring than Fratelli Tutti – urging us all to reach out and encounter our brothers and sisters of all faiths and none.

The prayers that conclude the encyclical are a final interfaith moment for me. One is an ecumenical Christian prayer and the other is a prayer to the Creator that can be said standing side by side with our brothers and sisters of other faiths, particularly the Abrahamic faiths. In the face of the crises that face all of humanity, why would we not want to pray: 

May our hearts be open to all the peoples and nations of the earth. 

May we recognise the goodness and beauty that you have sown in each of us,

and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects and shared dreams. Amen

This blog has been adapted from the original which can be found here www.interfaithjourneys.net