As spring comes to our world, the clock is ticking on our journey to St. Louis. Amidst our thoughts of activism, it is important to spiritually prepare for this encounter with the Southern Baptists.
Going to St. Louis is a tremendous opportunity not only to transform society, but to renew your own spirit. I hope you are finding time to pray, to center, to connect with a power greater than yourself, in whatever form is comfortable for you.
Below is an example of a prayer or reflection you can use, taken from Gandhi’s "My Faith in Nonviolence."
"Fear and love are contradictory.
Love is reckless in giving away,
oblivious as to what it gets in return.
Love wrestles with the world as with the self
and ultimately gains mastery over all other feelings.
My daily experience…is that every problem
lends itself to solution if we are determined
to make the law of truth and non-violence the law of life.
For truth and non-violence are, to me,
faces of the same coin.
The law of love will work,
just as the law of gravitation will work,
whether we accept it or not…The more I work at this law
the more I feel the delight in life,
the delight in the scheme of this universe.
It gives me a peace and a meaning of the mysteries of nature
that I have no power to describe."
You can find similar meditations in From Violence to Wholeness: A Ten-Part Program in the Spirituality and Practice of Active Nonviolence by Ken Butigan in collaboration with Patricia Bruno, O.P.; Pace e Bene Franciscan Nonviolence Center (www.paceebene.org).
Peace,
Doug Donley
Co-chair, Soulforce Journey to St. Louis