WE PRAY IN SOLIDARITY

                   

 

I remember the talk on the prayer topic where the precentor shared the focus of her father. “My Dad worked at the same lathe, the same speciality machine that created drive shafts for these big speciality motors. This was highly specialized work. But in all the thirty-six years that he worked at this same machine he always had a picture of his six kids taped right in front of him. He told us he did this so ‘he would never forget what he was there.’”

 

What we hold in front of us identifies who we are. 

 

Now, when I pray I want to hold in my mind the picture of the poor and suffering of this world. This is not difficult for I meet many people in difficult circumstances whether it be in the hospital, in their struggles with family members involved in the court system or in the diminishment of old age. 

 

I want to hold these pictures in my mind so that I never forget why I am involved in praying. This is not about my concerns and my issues. It is first and foremost standing with Jesus in his great love and concern for his fellow human being. Right from the beginning of his ministry, the ordinary people could see that this wandering teacher had great compassion for the poor of their region. They knew he was authentic. They wanted to follow him in his service to God and fellow human being. Jesus was very much in solidarity with God and with the forgotten and discarded people of this world.

 

Living and praying in solidarity is an attitude that people must deliberately cultivate. Most often in conversation they begin to talk about themselves, what they are doing and how they are getting along with others. The focus is so much of everyday conversation is on themselves.

 

When we pray in solidarity we want to picture in our mind our elderly aunt who lives in the care -home. Her two sons live in the USA and only come back once a year.  She is alone. You, her only close niece, is the only person that ever visits her in the care-home. When you pray, bring her close to your prayer. See her smile. It is the only way that she connects with you. 

 

As an act of solidarity in your prayer, bring the Syrian mother who had to live in a refugee tent, twelve by fourteen feet, with her four adult children (all over the age of twenty). This stay in the refugee camp in Lebanon went on for seventeen months. Pray in your heart stnading beside that refugee mother, (and equally her four adult children) in their struggles in those very long months. There is blessing in this situation because Canada accepted her family as a refugee and they now live in Edmonton. Pray with the struggles of that Mother and her family.

 

Praying in solidarity brings a rootedness to our prayer. It keeps us focused on the heart and concerns of God. It brings us to become a listening people. Living in solidarity always expands our heart. 

 

Nurturing  an attitude of solidary always keeps us aware of who we actually are.