St. Aelred: Honoring Friendship and Love as God's Gift

Today's Scripture Readings

Ruth 1:15-18 (NRSV)

So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said,
‘Do not press me to leave you
   or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
   where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
   there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
   and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Psalm 36 (BCP., p.632)


Mark 12: 28-34a (NRSV)

One of the scribes came near and heard the Saducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,'--this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God."

Blog Reflection

From: Holy Women,  Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints.

Friendship, Aelred teaches, is both a gift from God and a creation of human effort.  While love is universal, freely given to all, friendship is a particular love between individuals, of which the example is Jesus sand John the Beloved Disciple.  As Abbot, Aelred allowed his monks to hold hands and give other expressions of friendship.  In the spirit of Anselm of Canterbury and Bernard of Clairvaux, Aelred writes:

There are four qualities which characterize a friend: Loyalty, right intention, discretion and patience.  Right intention seeks for nothing other than God and natural good. Discretion brings understanding of what is done on a friend's behalf, and ability to know when to correct faults.  Patience enables one to be justly rebuked, or to bear adversity on another's behalf.  Loyalty guards and protects friendship, in good or bitter times. (p. 166).

St. Aelred was widely known for being gay.  However, in his time the abstract terms we now use to define heterosexuality and homosexuality did not exist.  One thing is quite clear about St. Aelred, is that friendship and love were central to his life as a Religious.   He was not afraid to comfort a brother in a way that communicated God's love.

I would like to share something on a more personal note.  This past October, I was received as a Postulant of the Companions of St. Luke/Order of St. Benedict.  It took place as part of the Communities' Fall Convocation. 

The Companions of St. Luke (CSL) is a Christian Community according to the Canons of The Episcopal Church.  The Community incorporates Vowed Members and Oblates who may be called to celibacy, married or partnered.  It is a "hybrid" of 'Christian Community' and Traditional Monastic Order.   There are members who are dispersed in their local communities, with their families and relationships, and others who live in community together.

One of the things that I could not help notice as I was introduced to the Community in October, is that regardless of who the members are, what kinds of relationships they live in, everyone is so very well accepted.  No one needed to talk about whether someone is included due to someone's sexual orientation or marital status.  Our only interest, was seeking union with God through contemplative prayer and celebrating our time together as a Community under the Rule of St. Benedict.   I could not help but sense an atmosphere of peace and friendship as we shared our time together.  I found it to be healing of the many wounds I have sustained over these many years, as well as giving way to new life with in me. 

I think it is quite possible that St. Aelred's commitment to friendship and love was centuries ahead of his time.  It is a very important hallmark for a Monastic community and/or a 'Christian Community'.   How much more important is it for society and the entire Church as we struggle with our identity as God's people, and whom we will include as leaders, celebrating Sacramental Rites, and seeking equality and justice?   Imagine what society and the Church would be like if we all put aside our prejudices and cruel rhetoric and devoted ourselves to friendship and love with others, including those who are different than ourselves.

Such possibilities could become realities if we would consider the following by Adelbert van der Wielan:

If you want to know whether I am able to bear this responsibility I must check how I meet my brothers and sisters in daily life: whether I love them prayerfully and pray with them lovingly.  Such an attitude is restful and disarming for the other.  So they will be free to be themselves with me. (A Life-Giving Way: A Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, by Esther de Waal, p.100).

Perhaps thinking on friendship and love as the opportunity to fulfill the commandments to love God, neighbor and self can help us all to reach out more.  I think we can all fill our heads with understanding of what to do from an intellectual perspective.  But to make it all transparent in our relationships and behaviors takes being open to the grace of God from the depths of our being.   This grace is by no means passive, but it is random and it will come with a cost to us.  It will mean that we do more than just talk about a really good feeling about God in our souls, but it will mean that out of our love for God, we will respond by the conversion of our lives.

Amen.


Prayer

Almighty God, you endowed abbot Aelred with the gift of Christian friendship and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness: Grand to your people that same spirit of mutual affection, that, in loving one another, we may know the love of Christ and rejoice in the gift of your eternal goodness; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. (Holy Women, Holy Men; Celebrating the Saints, p. 167).

St. Aelred: The Patron Saint of LGBT People and Integrity

Today's Scripture Readings

Ruth 1: 15-18 (NRSV)

So she said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ But Ruth said,
‘Do not press me to leave you
   or to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
   where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people,
   and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die—
   there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus and so to me,
   and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!’
When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Philippians 2: 1-4 (NRSV)

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

John 15: 9-17 (NRSV)

Jesus said,"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

Blog Reflection

I have a very important message today for those who wonder if the Church should be welcoming and affirming of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and/or queer (LGBTQ) people.

Being LGBTQ is about love.

Being Christian is about love. 

Our sexual orientation albeit homosexual,bisexual, pansexual, metrosexual, heterosexual is about love.

Being a Priest, Bishop, Deacon, Religious, lay member/leader etc is about love.  Allowing the Church to be more inclusive of LGBTQ people in all of our Sacraments and Sacramental Rites is about love.

Aelred was one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew's at Hexham and himself a son of Eilaf, treasurer of Durham.^[1] He was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110.

Aelred spent several years at the court of King David I of Scotland, rising to the rank of Master of the Household before leaving the court at age twenty-four (in 1134) to enter the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire. He may have been partially educated by Lawrence of Durham, who sent him a hagiography of Saint Brigid.

Aelred became the abbot of a new house of his order at Revesby in Lincolnshire in 1142^[2] and in 1147, abbot of Rievaulx itself, where he spent the remainder of his life. Under his administration, the abbey is said to have grown to some hundred monks and four hundred lay brothers. He made annual visitations to Rievaulx's daughterhouses in England and Scotland and to the French abbeys of Cîteaux and Clairvaux.
Aelred wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them Speculum caritatis ("The Mirror of Charity", reportedly written at the request of Bernard of Clairvaux) and De spiritali amicitia ("On Spiritual Friendship"). He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king and declaring him to be the true descendent of Anglo-Saxon kings. Until the twentieth century, Aelred was generally known as a historian rather than as a spiritual writer; for many centuries his most famous work was his Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor.

Aelred's work, private letters, and his Life by Walter Daniel, another twelfth-century monk of Rievaulx, have led some writers to infer that he was homosexual. In writing to an anchoress in The Formation of Anchoresses, Aelred speaks of his youth as the time when she held on to her virtue and he lost his.^[3] Nevertheless, all of his works encourage virginity among the unmarried and chastity in marriage and widowhood and warn against any sexual activity outside of marriage; in all his works he treats of extra-marital sexual relationships as forbidden and condemns "unnatural relations" as a rejection of charity and the law of God. He criticized the absence of pastoral care for a young nun who experienced rape, pregnancy, beating, and a miraculous delivery in the Gilbertine community of Watton.

Aelred died on January 12, 1167, at Rievaulx. He is recorded as suffering from the stone (hence his patronage) and arthritis in his later years (Patrologia Latina 195). He is listed for January 12 in the Roman Martyrology and the calendars of various churches.  (Source: Wikipedia).

Walking With Integrity last year wrote the story of how St. Aelred became the Patron Saint of IntegrityUSA.

At the 1985 General Convention in Anaheim, CA, at the suggestion of Howard Galley, Integrity/New York, the Standing Liturgical Commission recommended Aelred, along with a number of others, for inclusion in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. When this resolution came before the House of Bishops, the preconversion Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong informed the house that, according to John Boswell, Aelred of Rievaulx had been gay--implying this might disqualify his inclusion. With little discussion the House of Bishops approved the others on the list but sent Aelred back to the commission which sent him back to the House of Bishops where, in spite of his being gay, and with the bishops' full knowledge that he was, he was admitted to the calendar.

During the 1987 national convention of Integrity, in St. Louis, the following resolution was submitted by the Rev. Paul Woodrum and was passed: "Whereas the Episcopal Church USA meeting in General Convention in Anaheim, California, in 1985, with full knowledge, thanks to the vigilance of the bishop of Newark, of St. Aelred's homoerotic orientation, did approve for annual commemoration in her liturgical calendar the Feast of St. Aelred on 12 January and did provide propers for the same, Therefore be it resolved that Integrity Inc. place itself under the protection and patronage of St. Aelred of Rievaulx and, be it further resolved that Integrity, Inc. dedicate itself to regularly observe his feast, promote his veneration and seek before the heavenly throne of grace the support of his prayers on behalf of justice and acceptance for lesbians and gay men." 

St. Aelred was one who though he embraced a life of celibacy did not discourage other forms of physical love between monks in his own community.

Aelred allowed his monks to hold hands and give other expressions of friendship (Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 166).

Here in the 21st Century we understand that any physical relationship between consenting adults is a private matter between themselves and their Higher Power. 

I am writing this particular blog post on a day that means so much pain, sadness and anger among LGBT people.   The Canadian Prime Minister has dissolved thousands of same-sex marriages performed in Canada between couples who live in countries where they are not recognized.  The thousands of LGBT couples in the United States who went to Canada to be married there awoke this morning with the news that they are no longer married.  You can read the story of this move by the Canadian Prime Minister and the reaction of Dan Savage who's marriage in Canada has now ended here. 

Undoubtedly there are Christianist groups all over the United States who are celebrating this blow to equality for LGBT people.

The Scripture readings on this commemoration of St. Aelred remind us of how important love is to our vocation as Christians.  St. Paul tells us to have the mind of Christ who always put the needs of others a head of his own.   Even to the point of giving his own life on the Cross.   Jesus commands us in the Gospel to "Love one another as I have loved you."

The life vows of a Benedictine: Stability, Conversion of Life and Obedience are all about loving God, others and ourselves as the optional alternative Gospel reading from Mark 12: 28-34a says.  

Stability means offering ourselves to God as we are.  No masks on.  No pretenses.  No denying all that is strong and weak about us.  "The vow of stability" writes Esther de Waal in her book Living with Contradiction; An Introduction to the Spirituality of St. Benedict; "tells me that I must not run away from myself." (page 49).  By stability we mean anchoring everything about ourselves in God.

Conversion means allowing the God who invites me to not run away from myself, but ground everything about me in God; now I have to allow God to help me grow and "change".  This means that God takes me as I am, here and now and calls me to grow in my ability to love myself, my partner and others in a self sacrificing love. I am to take on the daily challenge of learning to accept others as much as I need to accept myself.  Loving myself and others is essential if I am going to live my life in a loving relationship with God.

Obedience, means that if I am going to achieve stability and allow God to help me experience conversion, I must be willing to listen to what God is calling me to do.  I must be willing to set aside all else I am doing and obey God's call to be obedient to what God is asking of me.  This means that I accept the struggle between my own will and the will of God.  If I am to experience growth in acceptance of myself and maintaining any kind of stability in God, while God calls me to conversion, I have to be willing to say yes to God's desire. 

If I accept God's will for my life as a gay man, then I must accept my sexual orientation, ground how I live it in the Gospel, the Rule of St. Benedict, and the Baptismal Covenant to serve others including my husband and many others in obedience to God's commandments.  If I make the attempt to change who I am, I am already being disobedient to God.

In St. Aelred we see an interesting dynamic about being LGBT and being someone who seeks God in our lives.  Instead of denying and trying to mask who we are, we are invited to be who we are and live it openly and honestly with God and others. 

We cannot find stability in God if we live in denial of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression. 

We will experience the most wonderful conversion when we allow ourselves to be loved as we are, and to love our spouses, friends, families, and communities in the way God created us to love.  God will show us how to put others needs before our own and find loves fulfillment and joy in serving others through the awesome gift of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression.  

When we face the reality of who we are and agree to serve others as God calls us, we are in fact obedient to God's voice in our lives and hearts. 

As we use our own experiences and tell our stories of how we learned to love ourselves and yet still fell in love with the God who created us and loves us as we are and by doing so help the reign of God to be established by working for the justice, peace, dignity, equality and inclusion of all marginalized persons including LGBT people, we are not only living the way of St. Benedict, we are also fulfilling the vows of our Baptismal Covenant.

The Baptismal Covenant, the Rule of St. Benedict, the life and patronage of St. Aelred, and the meaning of the Christian Life for LGSBT people is love. 

Let the inclusion and loving begun by our efforts continue.


Prayers

Almighty God, you endowed the abbot Aelred with the gift of Christian friendship and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness: Grant to your people that same spirit of mutual affection, that, in loving one another, we may know the love of Christ and rejoice in the gift of your eternal goodness; through the same Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.  (Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 167).

Pour into our hearts, O God, the Holy Spirit's gift of love, that we, clasping each the other's hand, may share the joy of friendship, human and divine, and with your servant Aelred draw many to your community of love; through Jesus Christ the Righteous, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.  (Prayer taken from Lesser Feasts and Fasts).

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior,
the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the
great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us
from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body
and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith,
one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all
of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth
and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and
one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.  (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 818). 

St. Aelred: A Gay Saint. Let's Talk About Love, the Soul and Sacred Spaces

Scriptural Basis


John 15:9-17

Jesus said,"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."

Blog Reflection

 The news that St. Aelred is a gay saint is very new to me.  I found out about it through Walking With Integrity.  Here is some fascinating information about St. Aelred and his connection to Integrity USA

Who was Aelred?

Aelred was one of three sons of Eilaf, priest of St Andrew's at Hexham and himself a son of Eilaf, treasurer of Durham.

Aelred was born in Hexham, Northumbria, in 1110. He spent several years at the court of King David I of Scotland, rising to be Master of the Household before leaving the court to enter the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx, in Yorkshire, in 1134, at the age of twenty-four. He may have been partially educated by Lawrence of Durham, who sent him a hagiography of Saint Brigid.

Aelred became the abbot of a new house of his order at Revesby in Lincolnshire in 1142, and later, abbot of Rievaulx itself in 1147. He spent the remainder of his life in the monastery. Under his administration the size of the abbey is said to have risen to some hundred monks and four hundred lay brothers. He made annual visitations to Rievaulx's daughterhouses in England and Scotland and to the French abbeys of Citeaux and Clairvaux. He is recorded as suffering from an unspecified and very painful disease in his later years.

Aelred wrote several influential books on spirituality, among them Speculum caritatis ("The Mirror of Charity", reportedly written at the request of Bernard of Clairvaux) and De spiritali amicitia ("On Spiritual Friendship"). He also wrote seven works of history, addressing two of them to Henry II of England, advising him how to be a good king, and declaring him to be the true descendent of Anglo-Saxon kings. Until the twentieth century Aelred was generally known as a historian rather than a spiritual writer; for many centuries his most famous work was his "Life of Saint Edward, King and Confessor." Aelred died on January 12, 1167, at Rievaulx.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailred_of_Rievaulx

How did Aelred become the patron saint of Integrity?

At the 1985 General Convention in Anaheim, CA, at the suggestion of Howard Galley, Integrity/New York, the Standing Liturgical Commission recommended Aelred, along with a number of others, for inclusion in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. When this resolution came before the House of Bishops, the preconversion Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong informed the house that, according to John Boswell, Aelred of Rievaulx had been gay--implying this might disqualify his inclusion. With little discussion the House of Bishops approved the others on the list but sent Aelred back to the commission which sent him back to the House of Bishops where, in spite of his being gay, and with the bishops' full knowledge that he was, he was admitted to the calendar.

During the 1987 national convention of Integrity, in St. Louis, the following resolution was submitted by the Rev. Paul Woodrum and was passed: "Whereas the Episcopal Church USA meeting in General Convention in Anaheim, California, in 1985, with full knowledge, thanks to the vigilance of the bishop of Newark, of St. Aelred's homoerotic orientation, did approve for annual commemoration in her liturgical calendar the Feast of St. Aelred on 12 January and did provide propers for the same, Therefore be it resolved that Integrity Inc. place itself under the protection and patronage of St. Aelred of Rievaulx and, be it further resolved that Integrity, Inc. dedicate itself to regularly observe his feast, promote his veneration and seek before the heavenly throne of grace the support of his prayers on behalf of justice and acceptance for lesbians and gay men."

Source: Archived material on Integrity website written by Paul Woodrum.

While the ongoing debate over the inclusion and equal rights of LGBT people continues especially among religious groups, there are some very important elements that are left out of the discussion.

Our sexuality while having a lot to do with what we do or do not do with our bodies, is also about our soul.  The expression of love may come from our bodies as we share passionate love for someone, but the origin of that love comes from our heart and soul.   It comes from the very essence of who we are.  God has created each and every one of us out of love, for love so that we might love.  Love God, neighbor and ourselves.  That place within our heart and soul from which we love others is sacred space.   It is a space in which God's Divine Presence dwells and communicates with us and through us.  One of the most devastating effects of heterosexism and homophobia is the constant invasion and violation of an LGBTQ person's soul.  No Pope, Bishop, Priest, Rev. Fred Phelps, Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer, Paul Cameron or any other person or group has the right or business invading and violating the sacred space of the soul of an LGBTQ person.  Or any other person for that matter.  What is so troubling about the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behavior that comes from anti-LGBTQ groups including ex-gay ministries/groups is how they invade and violate the most precious sacred space of LGBTQ people. The Rt. Rev. Mark M. Beckwith of Newark and the Rt. Rev. George E. Councell of New Jersey wrote about this in their response to the death of Tyler Clementi last September.  You can reread that blog post here.

Hate and violence does more than just produce hate speech and influence cruel behavior.  It penetrates the person(s) to whom the talk and violence is addressed.  It violates their soul where God loves them so deeply.
As we celebrate this commemoration of St. Aelred we are given this Gospel from John about loving one another as we have been loved.  Loving one another is more than nice affectionate feelings we have with in us for another person.  Love does not necessarily mean we have to agree with another person.   Love does call us to respect each individual by also respecting that sacred space where only God and the love someone holds for a significant other should be.  Laying down our lives for our friends, means going beyond our prejudices of how we think another person should be, think, say, dress, behave and seeing the beauty of God in the uniqueness of another person. 

Hate may be powerful and destructive as we are seeing with the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.   The hate has gone beyond gun violence as tragic as it is.  It  has become more rhetoric to the point of continued violence towards Jewish people, in some cases Islamic individuals, and the Westboro Baptist Church towards LGBT people.  However, the kind of love that Jesus is talking about in today's Gospel is the love that surpasses labels, race, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression/identity, religion, language, culture etc.  It is a love that is willing to lay down before the other and surrender ourselves to the fact that we are loved so deeply by God, that we want to share that love with others.  Not to convert them.  Not to make them even see our point of view.  But, to know that the sacred space of their heart and soul is so precious we want to honor and respect that person as if Jesus Christ were standing right in front of us.  That kind of love cannot be experienced by humankind in a way that transforms people's lives, unless we recommit ourselves to ending racism, sexism, hetersexism, gender stereo types and expectations, cultural and religious discrimination.  Unless we are willing to reach out to someone who is sick and give them health care and recognize the need to help those who face mental illness, the love of one another as Christ has loved us, cannot be totally experienced.   God's love must be evident in our actions, concerns and exchanges as we work towards accepting each other as diverse human beings. 

This is as much of a tall order for me as it is anyone else.  But, in our Baptismal Covenant on page 304 and 305 of the Book of Common Prayer invites us to commit ourselves to the love and mission of Jesus Christ. 

Our being LGBTQ is about how we love God, others and ourselves.  The sacred space of our hearts and souls is where God communes with us.  It is where we worship, pray and live with God, others and ourselves in attitudes of love and service to others.  No person has any business telling anyone else that their sacred space is less worthy of God's love than anyone else.  Instead we should be admiring and helping LGBTQ people to recognize the beauty of who they are or how they love within that sacred space.  If we could only do that, perhaps the Christian Faith might just become attractive to the LGBTQ communities and hate will turn in to love.

Prayers

Almighty God, you endowed the abbot Aelred with the gift of Christian friendship and the wisdom to lead others in the way of holiness: Grant to your people that same spirit of mutual affection, that, in loving one another, we may know the love of Christ and rejoice in the gift of your eternal goodness; through the same Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Collect for St. Aelred, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 167).


Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, page 826).


Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).