A Prayer Service for greater understanding of the need for Immigration Reform
In our work for immigration reform, we face seemingly Insurmountable obstacles, but we need to focus our efforts on faithful service, to be peacemakers.
Introduction: Opening prayer: (by Alycia Longriver -adapted) Creator, open our hearts to peace and healing among all people. Creator, open our hearts to provide and protect all children of earth. Creator, open our hearts to respect for earth, and all gifts of earth. Creator, open our hearts to end exclusion, violence, and fear among all. Thank you for the gifts of this day and every day.
We gather today to remember our heritage as sons and daughters of immigrants. We join in solidarity with those calling upon the United States government for a fair and compassionate immigration policy, and we urge lawmakers to address the root causes of migration and poverty.
First Reading: A Place at the Table: A Pastoral Reflection of the U.S. Catholic Bishops (2002) Catholic teaching affirms that all persons, even those on the margins of society, have basic human rights: the right to life and to those things that are necessary to the proper development of life, including faith and family, work and education, housing and health care....Our Church’s commitment to find a place at the table for all God’s children is expressed in every part of our country and in the poorest places on earth.
Response: (by David Steindl-Rast, OSB) Gracious and loving God, You are the one From whom on different paths All of us have come, To Whom on different paths All of us are going. Make strong in our hearts what unites us: Build bridges across all that divides us; United make us rejoice in our diversity, At one in our witness to your peace, A rainbow of your glory. Amen. Unknown
31
32