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Praying is not all we can do

Director’s Reflection

Dear Companions on the Journey,

Often with a caustic edge, pundits refer to predictable responses to mass shootings:“We hold the victims and their families in our prayers.” Some respond, you’ve got to do more than pray!As Christians, praying is fundamental to our response to others’ pain. But it is not all that we can do. I found the following prayer by Rabbi Jack Riemer instructive:

We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end war;
For we know that you have made the world in a way
That people must find their own path to peace
Within themselves and with their neighbors.

We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end starvation;
For you have already given us the resources
With which to feed the entire world
If we would only use them wisely.

We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to root out prejudice,
For you have already given us eyes
With which to see the good in all people,
If we would only use them rightly.

We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end despair;
For you have already given us the power
To clear away slums and to give hope
If we would only use our power justly.

We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end disease;
For you have already given us great minds with which
To search out cures and healing,
If we would only use them constructively.

Therefore we pray to you instead, O God,
For strength, determination, and willpower
To do instead of just to pray,
To become instead of merely to wish.

What do you think?
And let us pray for one another,
Michael McGarry, C.S.P.