Week ending 25 December 2015 Issue Number 1049

A Christmas Prayer

Philip Berrigan wrote “A Christmas Prayer” in 1972 while serving time at the federal penitentiary in Danbury,

Connecticut, for destroying draft records during the Vietnam War. Berrigan’s prayer serves as a reminder that the sins of

war and the arms trade continue to exist and shatter the lives of God’s people and creation. Like Berrigan, let us refuse to

be people of indifference in times of war and violence; instead, let us draw strength from the Lord of Justice and renew our

commitment to work for an end to war and violence in our local, national, and global communities.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwell in the land of gloom a

light has shone…For the yoke that burdened them…You have smashed…For every boot that tramped in

battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned…For a child is born to us, a son is given us…They name him

Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever

peaceful…which He confirms by judgment and justice, both now and forever” (Isaiah 2:7).

Lord, we walk in darkness, and our land is in gloom. As we struggle to welcome You, I am reminded of

Thomas Merton’s prayer: “I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me…

Nor do I really know myself.”

Lord, when David prayed, he questioned You. Let me do the same, for Merton’s words fit me, as they do

thousands of American Christians, anguished as myself.

Lord, what is the yoke that burdens us, that keeps us fearful and irascible? Is it jingoism? Whiteness?

Property? Or is it simply un-faith? Smash our yoke.

Lord, when will we burn the boots that tramped in battle, and the cloaks that rolled in blood? When will we

stop pulverizing Vietnam, stop arms sales to the poor, stop engineering doomsday weapons? War is death to

others, spiritual death to us. Be life to us.

Lord, Isaiah called You Wonder-Counselor, peerless in Your wisdom and prudence. Why does our wisdom

trade peace for comfort, why does our prudence oppress the weak? Convert us to true wisdom and prudence.

Lord, You are God-Hero: in You God and humanity met. Why do we fear You in ourselves; who do we shrink

from Your summons to others? Help us to see You in the suffering. Lord,You are Father-Forever, devoted

irrevocably to people. Why do we abandon people to specialists and bureaucrats, or to the sluggish

impersonality of the State? Teach us compassion and service.

You are the Prince of Peace, the embodiment of reconciliation. Why is inner peace so elusive to us, community

so strange, nonviolence so foreign? Why do we enthrone ourselves; why do we idolize the State?

Give us Yourself; give us peace.

Lord, Your judgment is upon us because we do not accept Your justice. You judge us through the Vietnamese,

through poor and black people, through our control of half of the world’s wealth, through our sterile,

unhappy lives. Be justice to us.

Lord, You stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth to apply the words of Isaiah to Yourself (and to us). “The

Spirit of the Lord has been given me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the

poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the

Lord’s year of favor” (Luke 4: 18, 19; Isaiah 61: 1, 2).

Lord, why do we resist Your Spirit: why do we defile Your anointing? How can we announce Your good news

to the poor when we don’t believe it ourselves? How can we free captives when we are captive to delusion and

indulgence? How can we free the downtrodden when our lives keep them downtrodden? How can we

proclaim Your year of favor when we systematize war, bomb insanely, indict patriots, reward war criminals,

jail resisters, reject amnesty, idolize power, and resist resistance as “self-righteous,”

“impractical,” and “violent?”

Lord, will You help us to find room for You to banish the gloom and darkness in our hearts and in our land?

“There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of

the Lord, as water covers the sea” (Isaiah 11:9).

Lord, we have no idea where we are going. We do not see the road ahead of us. We cannot know for certain

where it will end. Nor do we really know ourselves. So be it. “Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

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St. Bonaventure’s celebrates Simbáng Gabi!Simbáng Gabi (Filipino for “Night Mass”) is a devotional nine-day series of

Masses in anticipation of Christmas and to honor Mary. On the last day of the

novena, which is Christmas Eve, the liturgy is called “Misa de Gallo” (Rooster’s

Mass). Simbáng Gabi is one of the longest and most powerful celebrations in

the lives of Filipinos and Americans of Filipino descent.

One of the largest celebrations of this novena is held in the Archdiocese of Los

Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. This year’s theme, “Jesus, Our Savior, Empower Our

Families to be Better Stewards of Your Creation” (translation below), was chosen as a focus on Pope Francis’

encyclical Laudato Si’, encouraging participants to reflect on the environment and Christians’ responsibility to

be good stewards.

Recently, St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit celebrated the annual Simbáng Gabi, including a festive meal

with cuisine reflecting the traditional Filipino event.

Hesus, Aming Tagapagligtas, Bigyan

Mo ng Kapangyarihan ang Aming

Pamilya na Maging Mas Mahusay na

Tagapangalaga ng Iyong Nilikha

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22. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Francis Samsa (B)Winter Solstice

23. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Hill (B)

24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ed Hagman (N)Christmas Eve

25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nativity (F)

26. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen (F)

27. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Kocian (N)

28. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Holy Innocents (F)

29. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890

31. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . New Year’s Eve

1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . World Day of Peace

4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wellness Video Conference

6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . El Día de los Tres Reyes (F)

Albert Sandor (B)

7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joshua Minden (B)

8. . . . . . . . . . . . Fraternal Collaboration Video Conference

Weekly re:Cap is grateful for a recent donationfrom former friar Richard Hansen.

Our next issue will be published

on 7 January.

Prayerful best wishes to all

our subscribers for a Blessed

Christmas and a safe and

hopeful New Year!

Ken Smits reports that, after 6 weeks

of further tests, his heart ablation

procedure was judged a complete

success; normal heartbeat has been

restored. He is grateful for all the

prayers and support.

John Celichowski and his family are very grateful for

all of the prayers that have been offered for him and

his mom. Both are recuperating well.

World Day of PeacePope Francis has announced the theme ofthe Message for the Church’s 49th World

Day of Peace that will be celebrated on 1stJanuary 2016 is: Overcome Indifference

and Win Peace.

Peace is to be worked at: it is notsomething that one gains without efforts,

without conversion of mind and heart, without a sense ofcreativity and positive engagement in discussion. Such an action

must urgently have recourse to build a sense of responsibilityand awareness about the serious problems and challenges

afflicting our time; such as, fundamentalism, intolerance andmassacres, persecutions on account of faith and ethnicity,

disregard for freedom and the destruction of the rights of entirepeoples, the exploitation of human beings submitted even to

the different forms of slavery, corruption and organized crime,war and the plight of refugees and forcibly displaced persons.

Peace is possible where the rights of every human being arerecognized and respected, heard and known, according to

freedom and justice. The Message for 2016 aims to be a startingpoint for all people of good will, particularly those who work ineducation, ministry, culture; each one acting according to one’s

possibilities and according to one’s best aspirations to buildtogether a more conscious and merciful, and, therefore, more

free and fair world.