Can "Liking" War on Facebook Help End It?

Image by Taylor, War Office Photographer,
in public domain
Holy Trinity Church in Coventry, England
after WWII bombing.

A picture making the rounds on Facebook caught my eye. It's like an image straight from WWII: bombed buildings on a wide avenue, concrete and brick walls fragile as broken eggshells. 

In the Facebook image, stands a vast carpet of humanity. Just as people crowd to hail a visiting pontiff, these masses are lined shoulder to shoulder. The scene is gray. Slate sky, walls and people. Even the faces seem drawn and colorless.

This is Syria, and the people are in line for bread. It seems impossible to gauge their numbers, because the queue appears to stretch into infinity. Faces fill the length and breadth of the frame to the horizon, even peering from patches and holes that have been blown from structures.

“Apocalyptic” is the word that comes to mind. 

I always hate to hit the "like" button on such an image, because what's to like? But I went ahead and joined 6,003 others in "liking” the photo, and then 2,080 others in "sharing" it.

“Fr. Rocky" (Fr. Francis J. Hoffman, JCD), Executive Director of Chicago-area Relevant Radio, had shared this picture on his Facebook page, adding this comment:

"This is why Pope Francis wants us to pray and work for peace in Syria. War is very tough on the people of Damascus. Here they are the other day waiting for bread."

My "share" drew four immediate responses. Two people hit "like."

One lady I know to be mission-minded simply put this: :(

Another Facebook friend wrote, "Thank you for sharing Marianna. The face of war is often hidden from us."

I've written about regions in conflict before. See my post and poem on "Bridging Souls," my reflection "Pray the News in 2013," my piece on the New Evangelizers blog: "Missionary Friendship Changes Everything," and this Catholic News Agency post: "A For Arms." 

But because I know too little about Syria's particular “hidden face,” I did an online search on “Syria and Catholics.”

Up popped “A Prayer for the People of Syria,” on the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops website. Thank you, Facebook and U.S. bishops, for drawing me to prayer on this frigid, snowy Ash Wednesday. My cross of ashes is on my forehead, and my prayers are now with the war-torn people of Syria:

A Prayer for the People of Syria

Almighty eternal God, source of all compassion,
the promise of your mercy and saving help fills our hearts with hope.
Hear the cries of the people of Syria;
bring healing to those suffering from the violence,
and comfort to those mourning the dead.
Empower and encourage Syria’s neighbors 
in their care and welcome for refugees.
Convert the hearts of those who have taken up arms,
and strengthen the resolve of those committed to peace.

O God of hope and Father of mercy,
your Holy Spirit inspires us to look beyond ourselves and our own needs.
Inspire leaders to choose peace over violence 
and to seek reconciliation with enemies.
Inspire the Church around the world with compassion for the people of Syria,
and fill us with hope for a future of peace built on justice for all.
We ask this through Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace and Light of the World,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

Petition:

For the people of Syria, that God may strengthen the resolve of leaders to end 
the fighting and choose a future of peace.

We pray to the Lord…

En Español:

Oración por Siria
Dios todopoderoso y eterno,
fuente de toda compasión,
nuestros corazones se llenan de esperanza
con la promesa de tu misericordia y de tu auxilio salvador.
Escucha el clamor del pueblo de Siria,
sana a los que sufren a consecuencia de la violencia
y consuela a los que lloran a los muertos.
Fortalece y anima a los vecinos de Siria
en su cuidado y recibimiento de refugiados.
Convierte los corazones de los que se alzan en armas
y fortalece la resolución de los que se comprometen a la paz.

O Dios de esperanza y Padre de misericordia,
cuyo Espíritu Santo nos inspira
a mirar mas allá de nosotros mismos y de nuestras propias necesidades,
inspira a los jefes a escoger la paz en lugar de la violencia
y a buscar la reconciliación con los enemigos;
inspira a la Iglesia por el mundo entero a la compasión por el pueblo de Siria
y llénanos de esperanza por futuro de paz construido sobre justicia para todos.
Por nuestro Señor Jesucristo, Príncipe de Paz y Luz del Mundo,
que vive y reina por los siglos de los siglos.
Amén”

[This prayer is adapted from Catholics Confront Global Poverty, a collaborative effort of USCCB and Catholic Relief Services.]

Pray the News in 2013

Illustration by Erin Bartholomew
My family is "praying the news" more often now that we have a friend in India. My daughter drew an "Indian Nativity," and we reached out to an Indian priest at our parish, who invited us to help him edit a newsletter to raise funds for schools he founded to serve "untouchables" in India. (See St. Patrick's Academy website here.)

As we leap into 2013, let's make a new resolution to pray the news. For some, checking daily news is as natural as morning coffee. But many become distracted by family needs and life's busyness, and lag in keeping up with local, national and international events. To impact our world in profound and practical ways, we must reach beyond the borders of our homes and communities. 

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta invited people to start within their own circles in serving the lonely and vulnerable. Sometimes we miss poverty right within our families because it comes in such everyday guise. Offering a healing touch and attentiveness to that teen in our life who is shut behind a closed bedroom door, can free them to sanely ponder life's big questions. Honoring our mother and father, especially as they advance in age and frailty, deepens us. Welcoming each little one into our midst with patience stretches us to the point of heroism. Each daily, practical act to make someone feel loved and cared for answers Mother Teresa's call to serve the mission field right in front of our noses. 

My daughter's drawing helped spread
the joy of Christmas through a newsletter 
written by an Indian priest at our parish. We never 
know what little niche we can help fill. 
We only have to show concern and ask.

But in the course of our day, we should expand our reach, exploring regional and international news. We need this context to live informed lives. Praying the news can happen in one session as we read it, or throughout the day, as we go about our tasks. We can pray for those suffering intolerance in some distant land, and pray for areas wracked by disaster, war, famine, or unrest. We can target specific nations, towns and individuals by name, and pray for world leaders, asking that they be guided by God's wisdom. 

Perhaps if we get so specific, if we yearn for peace in foreign lands, it will help feed our desire for peace within our own homes and neighborhoods. And of course, as we fuel peace in our homes, that spirit will permeate our neighborhoods and the world. In 2013, let's become active, prayerful agents of peace.

Through the years, I've prayed and sent funds for tsunami, earthquake or war victims, and the sense of connection with others in distant areas has been strong...but temporal. I pray for a time, and then the need slips into obscurity as news coverage fades. But it's different this year. A missionary priest from India befriended me about four months ago, and now that whole nation has come alive for me. As I daily pray for my new friend's needs as he serves five rural outposts around Andhrah Pradesh, I've become more sensitive to the needs of India as a whole. 

When India's  Godavari River overflowed this year,
my friend Father Varghese Kalapurakudiyil
carried people to safety, fed the hungry and housed
150 homeless at his little church. He and his people 
have inspired my family and friends, opening our eyes to a
whole world of perseverance, courage, and faith in a distant land.
Photo courtesy of Fr. Varghese Kalapurakudiyil.

I keep a binder of photos that my new friend Father Varghese emails me, and bought a map of India to study. I dip into The Times of India,  the BBC online, and other websites for news. So, when my friend mentioned flooding in his area, I turned to the internet to see pictures of the worst flooding to hit Andhrah Pradesh in 20 years. That news never seemed to make the U.S. media outlets. I needed to turn to online articles and video news reports from Indian broadcasters, to learn more about the Godavari waters that ebbed and flowed from September through November. As many as 95,000 residents were displaced and housed in refugee tents, in a Biblical-scale event impacting a vast swath of the eastern Indian coast. 

Just weeks after flood waters dried, another event rocked that nation, that actually did hit news outlets like The New York Times, and sparked debates about the treatment of women in this second most-populated nation in the world. Protests erupted across India after a 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped then thrown off a bus in Delhi. The young woman struggled for her life for nearly two weeks, before suffering massive organ shut-down and succumbing to infection from her injuries yesterday. 

Now, don't we have enough problems without joining in so actively in the pain of a distant land? No, we should stay concerned! Our destinies in this age of mobility and connectivity are entwined. Over the weekend, articles ran in The New York Times, The Times of India and other news outlets about a sickening hate crime committed when a 31-year-old woman in Queens, New York pushed a 46-year-old Hindu from India to his death under a subway train. Arrested on 2nd-degree murder charges, she admitted to "beating" on Muslims and Hindus ever since the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers. We can't ignore such simmering bigotry in our midst. Will we, too, join the ranks of haters, or work toward the eradication of terrorism in all its forms -- even the impulse toward racism and violence that lurks within our own breast?

Staying informed about global issues can help us relate to that co-worker or neighbor from another nation. Keeping our eyes open and our minds active in pondering solutions to problems -- both local and global --  puts us in a state of being informed and, perhaps, able to make a difference. Sometimes violent plots are foiled by people having their eyes and ears open. Other times, real, substantive help occurs after certain connections are made. We hear about a specific need overseas. We happen to know someone who is an expert in that field and give them an alert. Next thing we know, certain solutions are being offered. Such global concern has led to wells being dug for needy communities, war orphans being adopted, and medical professionals forming teams to offer services to remote villages. I was exhilarated when my friends and local contacts mobilized for my priest friend in Andhrah Pradesh, sending him funds to buy a cow for a needy elderly couple, and blankets for the elderly in his struggling villages.

So, in 2013, let's take good care of our own. Let's serve well those suffering within our reach, and in our own families, neighborhoods and nation. But then let's expand our horizons, open our minds, and ponder and pray over needs beyond our borders. Who knows? Our one small voice united to another's could spark a trend. Let's make 2013 notable for how well we respond to God's call to be peacemakers. Let's not limit ourselves to what our puny imaginations can comprehend, but let God call us forth into His vision of peace for humanity.

Noisy World is Enemy of Prayer

Overview of a busy, Chicago street.
Photo by Bartholomew

Noisy world is enemy of prayer, says Pope Benedict 

By David Kerr  

Vatican City, Mar 7, 2012 / 11:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The constant noise that accompanies modern life is an enemy of God’s word being heard in prayer, Pope Benedict XVI said. 

“Interior and exterior silence are necessary in order to hear that Word,” and yet, “our age does not, in fact, favor reflection and contemplation,” the Pope said March 7. On the contrary, “it seems that people are afraid to detach themselves, even for an instant, from the spate of words and images which mark and fill our days.” 

The Pope was addressing over 10,000 pilgrims who gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience. This was the first audience of the year held in the open air. It was also the last in the Pope’s series of catecheses on the personal prayer of Jesus. 

Today, his particular focus was on Christ’s silence on the cross, as well as the need for silence in our own prayer. 

Photo by Bartholomew

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is repeatedly “withdrawing alone to a place far from the crowds, even from his own disciples, where he can pray in silence,” he observed. 

The “great patristic tradition,” the Pope said, also teaches Christians that “the mysteries of Christ are linked to silence, and only in silence can the Word find a place to dwell within us.”

 He then explained to the pilgrims that this “principle” of silence “holds true for individual prayer” and for Catholic liturgies, which, “to facilitate authentic listening, must also be rich in moments of silence and of non verbal acceptance.”

Silence has “the capacity to open a space in our inner being, a space in which God can dwell, which can ensure that his word remains within us, and that love for him is rooted in our minds and hearts, and animates our lives,” taught the Pope. 

Even when people feel “a sense of abandonment” in the silence of prayer, and they worry that “God does not listen and does not respond,” Pope Benedict said that they should be reassured that “this silence, as happened to Jesus, does not signify absence.” 

“Christians know that the Lord is present and listens,” the Pope assured, “even in moments of darkness and pain, of rejection and solitude.” 

This is why the prayer of Jesus, as recounted in the Gospels, “is a reminder that we need to stop, to experience moments of intimacy with God, ‘detaching ourselves’ from the turmoil of daily life in order to listen.” In doing so, we return “to the ‘root’ which nourishes and sustains our existence.” 

Pope Benedict then quoted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church as he reflected on Jesus’ silent prayer reaching its apex during his passion and death on Golgotha. 

During that time of suffering, when “his cry to the Father from the cross encapsulated ‘all the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word,’” he said. 

“Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his son,” he concluded. “Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation.” 

Pope Benedict then addressed the pilgrims in various languages before leading them in the singing of the Our Father in Latin and imparting his apostolic blessing.