On Wednesday, July 9th Ursulines around the world gathered to participate in the 100 Days of Prayer, Fasting and Advocacy sponsored by the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious.) The impact of violence and conflict in our world has risen to epic proportions. In response to this situation, the LCWR invited religious congregations in the US to pray for our country. The three US provinces committed to July 9th, the Feast of the Martyrs of Orange. During the troubles of the French Revolution, 29 Sisters, expelled from their convents, found refuge in a house at Bollène. During their eighteen months there, they shared their life of prayer and total poverty. Arrested in April 1794 because they refused to swear the oath required by the city officials, an oath their conscience condemned, they were jailed on May 2 at Orange.
They organized themselves and consecrated the
essential part of their time to prayer. Condemned to die by the Popular
Commission, then commanding in the actual Chapel of Saint-Louis, they were
transferred to the ancient Theater, where they awaited to climb the guillotine
erected in Saint Martin’s Court. They all went up to the scaffold
joyfully, singing and praying for their persecutors, who admired their courage.
These women took an unpopular stance and, in our world, today we are called to
do the same.
On July 9th, we gathered via zoom to pray
together and have small group discussion. There were a number of sisters from across
the country and even one from Australia. It was a true experience of unity and
commitment. Several of our provinces around the world gathered to pray together
in solidarity with us.
Below is the prayer we used. As we continue the
journey let us be people of hope and ambassadors of peace.
Seek to spread peace and concord wherever you are.” (Angela
Merici)
O God, Source
of all that is,
we find
ourselves with heavy hearts these days –
hearts made
heavy by the reality of violence, war, and disasters,
and the
suffering and destruction they bring.
In places far
and near, the violence and death seem endless.
We hold in our
hearts and in our prayers
our wounded
and weary world.
We pray for an
end to the injustice, violence, and war
that seem to
hold our world in their grip,
and that we
sometimes find in our own hearts.
We pray you, O
God,
disarm our
hearts and disarm our world,
that the
rights and dignity of all may be respected and protected;
remind us that
we all share life together
as sisters and
brothers to each other.
We pray for
peace and justice, O God,
and that each
of us may be an instrument
of peace and justice in our world. Amen.
Diane
Fulgenzi, OSU