The World Around Me

Freedom: Praying the News 9/21/25

O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear
To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed,
So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.
Psalm 107:17-18

Opening Invocation

God of compassion, we bring into your presence all that weighs on our hearts this week, especially the human suffering and the most frightening things we see and hear of in the news daily. We gather these headlines not to dwell in despair or fear, but to bring them into the refuge of your healing presence.

Deep Focus

Many seek the ruler’s favor,
But justice for man comes from the LORD.
Proverbs 29:26

Lord, we have had a scare about the possible end of free speech in our country this week. Our media is capitulating to tyranny and even loyalists to the administration are starting to worry. Peaceful protestors are thrown to the ground, comedians who make fun of the president are silenced, newspapers tone down what’s happening and oppression is becoming normalized. We’re kind of freaked out. Real justice comes from you, Lord, as well as the strength to oppose what is wrong. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you, O God. We pray that freedom of speech be protected as part of respecting the dignity of the human person and human rights. Let us never be afraid to speak up when not to do so would disappoint you who love us so much.

*Spend a few quiet moments with Jesus, drawing strength from his presence. Maybe it feels like warmth. Maybe it is like light. Maybe it is like being grounded. Maybe it is living water you drink. However you perceive it, let the Lord share his strength with you.

Other Intercessions/headlines of this week

Thus says the LORD, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the immigrant, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Jeremiah 22:3

Again, Lord, our military blew up a boat full of people on the high seas without provocation, without proof of wrongdoing, without due process or warning. This is hard to understand. We pray for the souls of each of those people, and a clear resolution of what is happening. May there be no more killing by our government, God of righteousness, especially without true cause.

Immigrants continue to be rounded up and some are dying in detention when they are denied medical care or medication their lives depend on. These raids are becoming more and more violent. How do we help, Lord? What do we do? Send us your Spirit and give us the peace of inner conviction. Grant us the knowledge of when and how to act on their behalf. Show us openings in our days to do or say something, a mind that is open, a heart that is good. Bless our efforts and open doors before us. Let us run lightly and with great confidence in your paths. Bend our hearts according to your will so that we may be truly free and help you free others.

Protect, Lord, our politicians and leaders, no matter who they are or what they believe in, from political violence. Stabilize our nation. Help us dialog without compromising our values. Help us be open to all that is right whoever it comes from. Grant us peace in our country so we can understand the problems we face.

We are living with a president who loves vengeance and is obviously on a vendetta. Are we taking his attitude toward opposition? Are we becoming mean or hateful? Do we hope for retribution? Lord do not allow us to become bitter but help us to become better. Help us to stand against evil without taking on its characteristics of violence, lies, distortion and hate. We pray for our president also that he will be healed of all the things that make him so hateful and unhappy. Grant him the peace and joy of love and forgiveness instead, and we ask this for ourselves as well.

We continue to pray for the Palestinian people who are being bombed and starved. We pray for those trapped in Gaza City, or who could find no safety anywhere. Lord, speak to your people. May the violent relent. May there be lasting and just peace in Palestine and Israel, in Ukraine and Russia, everywhere there is the hell on earth of war.

We pray for free and fair election, for peaceful transfers of power.

We pray for the protection of protestors and those who resist, that they will be protected from violence and interference, that their voices will be heard.

We pray for free speech, for the freedom of information and knowledge in our schools and universities, for the freedom to learn the history of marginalized people, for the freedom for scientific inquiry.

We pray for the health of the public, for proper information about health so people can make good decisions for themselves and those in their care.

We pray for our Republic which is under great stress right now. May we see freedom reign. May our country stand for everything it thinks it stands for. Amen amen, let us be a free people in all the ways that are good.

Closing blessing

God, in the moments when the news overwhelms, steady our spirits with the reminder that you hold the world- sun and star, nation and neighbor, beetle and bug, atom and quark, as well as our frightened hearts in your hands and that you remain you even if worlds fall. May your peace shape our hearts, your justice and love shape our actions this week. Lead us in your ways. We ask all these things in your Name, in your honor, and for love of you and our brothers and sisters. Amen

September 21, 2025 0

Non-violence: Praying the news of the week September 14, 2025

Opening Invocation

For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:5

Deep Focus

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. … Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God… Rather if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:17-21

Jesus you did not use violence. You never hurt anyone. You never struck anyone. You never killed anyone. You did not tolerate injustice, greed, hypocrisy, or untruth. You confronted systemic injustice head on. This is what we are called to do.

This week was a maelstrom of violence; both violent acts and violent speech. It has been hard on nearly everyone, but especially on those who lost loved ones; eleven Venezuelan people at sea struck by an American missile, an influential political figure so divisive the division continues after his death, two children in a Colorado school shot and injured.

Everyone is wounded. We don’t know what to do anymore. It’s as if a Pandora’s box was opened and a slew of evil spirits of hatred and violence were released, swirling around and between us, causing more and more alienation, anger and confusion. But they have no power over us, because we belong to you. We are not at war with human beings but the powers and principalities of darkness, the spirit of murder, of hate and lies. Sometimes they seem so unstoppable. But it’s not true. There is no truth in them. In your tender compassion, Lord, may the dawn from on high break upon us, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:78-79)

You are the Friend who we know loves us, all of us.

Let us gather our strength for love and nonviolence from you.

*Spend a quiet moment with Jesus. He is working in his mother’s garden. Join him. What is he doing? See that smile? He is glad you are here. He has something small in hand. He presses it to you heart. What is it? Seeds? A tiny star? A healing warmth? What do you feel?

Other Intercessions/headlines of this week

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:18

Lord, you hear the cry of the poor. We often do not. Now they are not only being ignored or disdained, some are being rounded up like criminals or trash. An influential media figure suggested the homeless should be euthanized. He is sorry for what he said. However, it was a a shocking moment, a symptom of something so wrong with us. We pray that you purify our hearts of any part of us that looks down on the poor and unhoused. Help us to truly see them. You said they were you. Every time we see them, we have an opportunity to prove our love to you. Let us be humble in our contact with the people the world pushes aside, remembering we have so much to learn. In public discourse, which they are almost always excluded from, inspire us to speak up for them as you would have us do.

Israel attacked Qatar, continues to starve and bomb Palestinian civilians, and Russia continues to attack Ukraine. What can we do about these horrible things so far away? Bring us with you, Lord, to the foot of the Cross. Allow us to carry your Precious Blood to all who suffer violence and war to bring them healing. We kneel before you, Jesus Crucified, and prostrate ourselves in spirit. We ask you on behalf of for parents who have lost children, for children who have lost their families, for the wounded in hospitals, for the doctors without the medicine and equipment they need to ease pain and save lives, for every frightened child waiting for the next explosion, for peace, for a just and lasting, a true peace. May the bombs stop falling. May there be justice and righteousness. May your mercy pour over all. Never let us accept or normalize genocide or the weaponization of hunger.

We pray for immigrants who are still be rounded up violently and detained without due process in terrible conditions. Lord we pray for their dignity and fair treatment. We pray over our country’s need for a scapegoated group of people, that it will be healed of this so that we can love our brothers and sisters as ourselves; the love you have commanded. Guide us to any actions we must take.

Help us to love those who preach hate, those who accept it, or deny what is happening. Help us to bless and not curse our enemies, to pray for them humbly as you want us to, even as we speak out against what we must. Help us to become better rather than bitter.

We pray for an end to racism; the loud kind, or the unconscious and hidden kind; both in others and in ourselves. Help us who are not people of color to listen to those who are about these issues.

We pray for democracy, for the ideals of our constitution of liberty and justice for all.

We pray for Pope Leo XIV on this, his birthday. Bless him with long life and holiness in his strong and gentle rule over the Catholic Church, in his love for all people.

We pray that all people will grow in mercy and compassion.

“Protect us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day.”

Closing Blessing

Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

“With gentle words, tender and kind
Isaiah 40:1a

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen

September 15, 2025 1

The war against ourselves

St. Teresa of Avila talked about the role of the contemplative as a standard bearer. She described the holder of the guidon of Jesus, of love, as having the one goal to hold the banner high no matter what chaos whirls around him, no matter if he is cut to pieces. If the standard bearer should fall, he must struggle to his feet again to hold high the symbol that urges on those in battle, gives them hope, lets them know their comrades are nearby when their courage flags.

I have thought a lot in the past couple of days about what was wrong with me in the midst of the chaos; meaning the violence of thought word and deed since the public murder of Charlie Kirk. I couldn’t hold the banner so much. It wobbled, as Winnie the Pooh would say of his spelling. It wobbled, shook, slipped as I took in entirely too much of what was going on. I have CPTSD and it’s important for me to guard how much craziness I absorb. Also I am an empath type person. I feel what people are feeling deeply. I don’t know about you but the last couple of days have triggered me badly. I have felt like a microcosm of the macrocosm of horror and rage, of compassion and sympathy, of fear and dread. My fight or flight has been FIGHT as usual. I too want to fill my mouth with argument along with everyone else.

St. Teresa would be the first person to say our real war is against ourselves. she advised us to return again and again to “the room of self knowledge.” Well today I am trying that.

Simeon the Prophet told Mother Mary that a sword would pierce her heart “so that the secret thoughts of many [would] be laid bare (Lk. 2:35). I have thought about that at times of tragedy and reckoning over the last several years. It does seem that the secret thoughts of many are laid bare in the midst of tragedy, of horrific events. Mary’s heart was pierced through by her love and compassion for her Son, and really, for us too. Murder surely pierces her heart. Injustice, people doing harm to one another, these must hurt her terribly. Jesus Crucified by hate. Again and again.

I have had my PTSD triggered by the event itself; a horrible murder. A father and husband with little kids suddenly dead. I lost my first husband in a car accident when my youngest was three months old and my eldest three weeks shy of her fifth birthday. I can hardly stand to think of what Kirk’s widow is going through today and what she will go through in the days, weeks, months, years ahead of her. She will have to watch her children grieve. She will have to be there for them as her world is ending. I can’t imagine people watching video all over the world of my husband dying a gruesome death. I was surprised when the sun still rose the day after my husband died. I watched in shock as the news came on and people went to work and school and drove around as if the sky hadn’t fallen. I feel for her very much.

The secret thoughts of many have been laid bare haven’t they? I’ve been triggered by some of their reactions as well as the original event. Some people have been sanitizing the murdered man as if he had been a saint when he was a rank racist who said things every day that could get people harassed, threatened and endangered and did. His public life was all about hate. Then people I thought were sane are saying his work should be “continued,” (Gavin Newsom) or that he “did politics the right way.” (Ezra Klein).

Some have been fawning over him. Their hero is dead. Incomprehensible to me. He was horrible. Look up the things he said for yourself if you don’t believe me.

I think of St. Edith Stein’s saying that truth without love or love without truth is a destructive lie. And look. It is. Historically Black campuses have had bomb threats. The DNC had a bomb threat. Why? I guess because Kirk hated black people? Or because they assumed a black person did it? Because he hated Democrats? They assume the culprit is a Democrat? Brawls have broken out. The president wants to give the man a statue in DC and award him the presidential medal of freedom. Of course he does. He hasn’t helped with his incendiary blaming of “radical left Democrats.”

The outpouring of grief and praise for the man must be a gut punch to the people he harmed with his bullying, with his hate and his stirring up more and more hate. I know it’s a gut punch for me. My heart is the most with the vulnerable and persecuted. That’s where I think it should be. However that solidarity of mine has caused me a lot of rage over the last couple of days. A friend said, to my prayer online for peace and an end to political violence, “You’re a good person.” I replied, “Not really.” I noticed one of my kids put a laughing emoji on that. Thanks a lot Roise.

Also triggering to me is the response of people who want to skip the ugly process of truth and reckoning to get to the peace they think would come if we all decided to just get along and lay aside our differences. To me that’s fake peace. After the things I have been through I have seen enough of that. How can we love our enemies if we whitewash and sanitize what they have done? That’s fake love. It’s useless, wrong even.

I see how I have been freaking out about all this; angry, horrified, scared for our country, taking in too much of what everyone is saying and what the news is when I know that makes me so upset.

Maybe I can offer up all the wild inner agony I have had about all this to God to help someone somewhere. Mary’s piercing of the heart was co-redemptive. I can entrust my little offering of a struggling heart to her.

I pray that I’ll be able to love Kirk- who by all accounts would be an enemy of mine at least as a public figure- in the way God wants me to. Right now that seems to me to be to pray for his salvation, for a beautiful forever life with God for him. Whatever he is doing, Charlie Kirk understands more than any of us do now. He has a completely different perspective. He has encountered eternal love and life. May he embrace them, embrace him who is love and life himself with all of his heart and possess them forever. God says he will give us all new hearts instead of our stony hearts. Amen amen.

I need to ask for that for myself, too. For all of us.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”
Ezekiel 36:26

September 12, 2025 1

Pray the News 8/31/25

Opening Invocation

He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For the sake of His name.
Psalm 23:3

Deep Focus

A voice is heard in Ramah,
    mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.
Jeremiah 31:15

How long, O Lord, how long will these mass shootings go on? How long until we stop children being gunned down in school? How long will this sickness possess our land, will this demonic scene play out? How long until our leaders listen to the people and do what is necessary so this never happens again? How many little children have to die? How many parents have to grieve for the rest of their lives? Lord, we repent in dust and ashes on behalf of our nation for the violence, for the greed, for the corruption, for our lack of priority for mental health access, and for all our faults as a people. Send your Holy Spirit on us all to bring us and all of our leaders Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord, not only to think and to pray but to do what is right. Lord, lift up the families of the dead, especially of the two little ones shot down in Church this week, Harper and Fletcher. May your Spirit of love and consolation be near all the injured and traumatized.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come.

*Quiet your heart and allow yourself to be led by Jesus beside beautiful and quiet water, through green fields where he lays you down to rest, then down paths of goodness and right, now across dark valleys when he is your only light, and finally out into an open place, before a beautiful table. He fills your cup with wine that spills over onto the table cloth, and fills your plate with all you could ever need. He anoints your head with fragrant oil. Let yourself be loved in this moment, knowing this love, too, spills over and fills the world.

Other Intercessions/headlines of this week

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom
2 Corinthians 3:17

We pray for Kilmar Abrego Garcia and that the deep wrongs and injustices heaped on him be righted. We all know he is detained for purely political reasons. Defend him, protect him, and may the truth come roaring like a lion on his behalf before the whole world. If he can’t be safe here may a safe country offer him asylum. Someone must help this man and his family. Let it be you and if it can be us show us the way.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

We pray for those separated from loved ones by deportation, detention, and forced self deportation, and for all who live in fear of ICE. Lord protect, defend and encourage them. Show us how we can help them and stop this violence. We ask that you send a spirit of compassion and repentance on those who participate in mass deportations, abuse and detention in terrible places. Not only do we beg you to fill them with your merciful love, but to forgive them and let them know the power of your Divine Mercy.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

We know our president, who has caused and engaged in much evil, cruelty and harm, has been ill and is elderly and frail. We do want him to be stopped from committing any more evil acts but we do pray for his salvation, whatever that will take for him. Before it is too late, grant him the grace of insight and repentance that he can know and not refuse you and your mercy. We pray he will know the joy of forgiveness and transformation in this lifetime or at least at the moment of his death.

Come Holy Spirit, Come.

As war drags on for Ukraine, and slaughter and famine in Palestine, we ask for a just and lasting peace for those places and everywhere there is violence, starvation and war. May the people be fed and be able to live in peace and freedom. May there be healing for survivors and mercy for the dead. We pray for the conversion of Russia so that she will stop spreading her errors throughout the world. We pray for Israeli government to act with mercy and justice. We pray for all nations who have contributed to this mayhem and horror, or stood by while it happened and did not help, to step up, to speak and to act.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come

We pray for an end to the attempts of the federal government to occupy major cities ruled by the presidents’ political rivals. We pray for DC to be self ruled in peace, and for the threatened city of Chicago as the city prepares. Protect the people and the rule of law, we pray.

Come Holy Spirit, come.

Lord, we are living through dark times and each of us has our part to play in bringing light and ending the violence and the violation of human rights, the destruction of our democracy and the hatred, greed and nihilism that fuels all this. We are scared a lot. We ask that you grant us the knowledge of your will for us and the power to carry it out. May the knowledge of you fill the earth as water fills the sea.

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

Closing Blessing

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
John 14:18

Come, Holy Spirit,

Come by means

of the powerful intercession

of the Immaculate Heart

of Mary,

thy well beloved spouse.

August 31, 2025 1

Pray the News 8/17/25

Opening Invocation

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Mt. 11:28-30

Deep Focus

When I called, you answered me; you increased the strength of my soul.
Ps. 138:3

Oh God, we are often overwhelmed and frightened these days. The sickening cruelty, the scary authoritarian moves, the destruction of constitutional norms, the bowing to our enemies, all of this horrifies and shocks us. Helpless rage at times consumes us. Other times we just have to turn it all off. But we were born for this time. We are alive now for a reason. Show us our path in these dark days, and renew the strength of our souls. With you we can climb any mountain, scale any wall, walk any path. With faith, with prayer let us be supported and guided. Take us into your Sacred Heart, the center and core of all things. May our prayer deepen that we may draw from you, Source of all life. May we never hurt anyone and may we never be afraid of anyone so that we may know your will and be able to carry it out.

*Spend a few minutes with Jesus now, closing your eyes in stillness and silence. He wants to take you somewhere. Follow him through the corridors or your heart, down down until you come to an open place. There is an altar here with a river flowing from it. You see it is lined with beautiful trees. Let Jesus pick some of the leaves for you and feed them to you. Allow him now to cup his hands and give you water from the river to drink. What do these leaves, this water, taste like? How does it feel when he wraps his fragrant cloak over your shoulders? Maybe you feel stronger now. Maybe the fear drains from you. Maybe not. Maybe this will come later when you need it most.

Other Intercessions/Headlines to Pray Over

The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal; Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds.
Sirach 25:21

Lord, may our communities gather to stand up for the rights and dignity of the unhoused in their midst, to defend and help them, to shed light on the systemic causes of their destitution as well, to mitigate and eliminate those.

Lord, enlighten the people.

Come Holy Spirit to ensure the justice and fairness, the freedom and hope of our elections and our faith in them. Protect them from interference and manipulation.

Lord, enlighten your people.

That we will grow as a people in compassion and discernment of wisdom and justice, we pray.

Enlighten your people, Lord.

For the starving and bombed people of Gaza and everywhere else, we pray that the world will stop tolerating this crime against humanity and do what is right.

Enlighten your people, Lord.

For Ukraine, for a just and lasting peace.

Enlighten your people, Lord.

For those who are being abused and denied their rights in detention, and those who live in fear of it, we pray

Enlighten your people, Lord.

Open the eyes of the American people to this authoritarian danger, Lord, before it is too late, we pray

Enlighten your people, Lord.

Strengthen us to defend the weak, the persecuted, the vulnerable we pray.

Enlighten your people, Lord.

Jesus, you have said we must pray for our enemies, so we pray for the enemies of justice and love, that they will be truly converted in mind and heart.

Closing Blessing

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand
Isaiah 41:10

*Today I am going to add a prayer I love and pray often. It may be useful to you too in times like these. I have it memorized so I can reflect on it when I can.

May I open my eyes every morning with the Holy Name on my lips.

May I see God everywhere in everyone.

May I never hurt anyone, and may I never be afraid of anyone.

May I be inspired to choose persuasive words, loving language, creative and positive thoughts, to carry peace and good will throughout the world.

May my meditation deepen, that I may draw from the Source of all life.

May I fall asleep at night with the Holy Name on my lips,

To heal my wounds, and prepare me for another day of service.

Amen.
Eknath Easwaran

*Reader, please feel free to add your own prayers to these in the comments if I have missed a news story that got to you this week.

August 17, 2025 1

Praying the News of the week, August 10, 2025

Opening invocation

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
1 John 4:7a

God of compassion, we bring into your presence all that weighs on our hearts this week, especially the human suffering we see and hear of in the news daily. We gather these headlines not to dwell in despair or fear, but to bring them into the refuge of your healing presence.

Deep Focus

We pray especially for Gaza, where a man made famine is unfolding and 217 people, many of them children, died of starvation this week. To our horror, aid continues to be blocked, and people who come for food to the military controlled aid stations are often shot. Lord, hear the cries of these people, and the cries of our own hearts against this murderous injustice in front of a seemingly helpless world. Open the way for food and medical supplies to flood into Gaza, and open the hearts of those opposed, that they might be filled with mercy.

Spend a few minutes in simple silence with God. Feel what you feel about Gaza’s situation, all of it. Let it be here for God to do something with it. Don’t worry about words. Just be as open as you can in silence and trust, letting yourself be a channel for the outflow of his divine will into this world, for his transforming love to come through you.

*You may notice a quiet change in how you feel as you do this. Even if you don’t, God remains God and you can trust he is working through you right now.

Other Intercessions/Headlines to pray over

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7

For those who live in fear of ICE, that they will be protected, treated with dignity and justice, and for those standing up for them, we pray.

Lord hear our payer.

For those detained by ICE, especially those being harmed and abused, Oh God deliver them.

Lord, Hear our prayer.

For those in the path of wildfires, that they and the fire fighters will be safe.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For Ukraine, for a just and lasting peace.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For the defeat of authoritarian leaders and governments all over the world, we pray.

Lord, hear our prayer.

For the victims of Epstein and Maxwell, that they will be heard, believed and respected. May there will be justice and restoration for them.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Jesus, you have said we must pray for our enemies, so we pray for the enemies of justice and love, that they will be truly converted in mind and heart.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Closing Blessing

Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24

God, in the moments when the news overwhelms, steady our spirits with the reminder that you hold the world- sun and star, nation and neighbor, beetle and bug, atom and quark in your hands and that you remain you even if worlds fall. May your peace shape our hearts, your justice and love shape our actions this week. Lead us in your ways. Amen.

*Reader, please feel free to add your own prayers to these in the comments if I have missed a news story that got to you this week.

August 10, 2025 0

Is empathy a sin? A Gospel perspective

As the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is, at this writing, tomorrow, (Friday June 27th in 2025), and June is traditionally the month of the Sacred Heart, I’ve been pondering the heart’s virtues, such as love, compassion, mercy, solidarity, and empathy especially. This seems an urgent topic to write about right now as so many seem to glory in cruelty, others going so far as to call empathy a supposed “sin”.

I’ve had somebody say to me in response to a plea for compassion for migrants, that we “aren’t supposed to be the Church of ‘nice.” “No, I said, “we are supposed to be the Church of radical love.”

The argument that there is a “sin” of empathy, I likely don’t have to tell most of you, is antithetical to the Gospel. At best this argument is coming from people who are trying to protect their hearts from the pain of empathy or their conscience telling them to do something about it. Maybe it’s to justify the hardness of their hearts. God knows what it is. In any case this is the work of the devil. It’s ugly and contrary to love. Love, remember, is what God is and what we are supposed to be doing. Maybe they’ve re-interpreted what that was supposed to mean to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s hard to understand how that is possible. However here we are hearing anti-empathy declarations.

This belief that empathy is to be quashed and not nurtured or respected is mostly found in certain corners of ultra-reactionary or hyper-rationalist “theology.” The argument usually goes something like:

“Empathy clouds judgment. It leads us to condone sin in others. It makes us sentimental and irrational.”

One time I came home from work and my teen and pre-teen were playing seriously inappropriate music loudly in the house. I turned it off and made them stand in front of a picture of Our Lady and recite the lyrics to her. They couldn’t. I wonder if people who discourage or disdain empathy can look into the face of Jesus and tell him that nonsense they say to other people. Lacking empathy, campaigning against it is the more likely sin.

The “sin of empathy” crowd say they feel manipulated by calls for empathy. They put labels on goodness like “virtue signaling.” rather than being inspired to act with mercy. Maybe they think the man beset by robbers deserved what he got, that the Good Samaritan was weak, stupid, being taken advantage of. Perhaps they would say that the priest and the levite who passed by without helping were the real heroes of the story. Maybe these are people who have been put-upon too much in life, or feel used when they do something for someone, or they have trouble with boundaries and they threw the “baby out with the bath water,” as my mom would say. I don’t know but they’re wrong and they try to deceive others as well.

How could empathy erase moral clarity? It can only deepen it and fill it out. As Pope Francis said in Dilexit Nos, his encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the human heart brings together fragments of ourselves into cohesion. The heart brings together soul, spirit, mind and body, enabling true discernment and understanding. We can’t attempt to cut off parts of ourselves and call that “clarity” or “judgement.” To do that only mutilates us as people, distorting our judgement and endangering our salvation.

Being “cruel to be kind” is an oxymoron when it comes to the suffering of another. It is merely mean, dumb, and contrary to the Gospel.

Empathy is the ability to enter into another’s experience — to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2), to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). Jesus constantly showed empathy:

He wept over Lazarus (John 11:35) and over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41)
He touched lepers, (Matthew 8:22-26) embraced children, (Mark 10:13-16) noticed the suffering no one else saw and did something about it every time.
His Incarnation was an act of ultimate divine empathy — “He took on our infirmities and bore our diseases” (Isaiah 53:4, Matthew 8:17)
Toward the lowly he never used “tough love.” He reserved that for the powerful alone. He was angry with them for their oppression of others, for their hypocrisy, their legalism that got in the way of mercy, and for their lack of compassion. (See Matthew 23 for some serious rage from Jesus toward religious leaders for these very things).
He healed a woman with a crooked back and was angry when the Pharisees and Scribes confronted him with doing this on the Sabbath. He hated the way they put strict observance of rules over care and compassion for people. (Luke 13: 10-17)

To reject empathy is to reject Christ’s own way of loving. Our Lord never condemned anybody for being too soft hearted; quite the opposite. People were condemned by him for being legalistic without mercy (the Pharisees), for being indifferent to suffering (the priest and Levite in the Good Samaritan story Luke 10:25-37), for being harsh and arrogant instead of humble and compassionate (Luke 18:9–14).

Clearly the “sin of empathy” assertion is a serious distortion of the Gospel – anathema to it. People asking “yeah well who IS my neighbor” and trying to redefine that as people they agree with, like or approve of, are on the wrong path. Don’t listen. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Do not be carried away by strange teaching (Hebrews 13:8 and Ephesians 4:14). If anyone preaches to you a different Jesus than we (the apostles) have, said St. Paul, let them be accursed (Galatians 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 11:4).

You cannot love God and hate your brother or sister. That would make you a liar. (1 John 4:20)

The intentions of Pope Leo XIV for the month of June are “that the world will grow in compassion.” He says, “Now is the time for love.”

It seems to me there is a battle of good and evil happening, a fight for the soul of the world. I don’t think I usually talk like this. But this anti empathy stuff is the devil. Resist him, solid in your faith. (1 Peter 5:8)

Jesus teaches us that it’s not enough just to resist evil. We have to pray for, bless and love those in the grip of it. We have to shine our light of love and compassion for all to see. And we need to grow in the virtues of the heart ourselves.

Jesus, gentle and humble of Heart, make our hearts like unto thine.

June 26, 2025 2

Travel by Heart

Travel by heart

June 25, 2025 0

Time Out for Peace

My sweet friend Julia, of the Focolare Movement, (the official name is “The Work of Mary”), mentioned to me once the practice they have of stopping to pray for peace at noon. Looking into this, I found out this was something a young Focolare Blessed, who had died at the age of seventeen in 1990, of bone cancer, had done every day. Her name is Chiarra Luce (meaning “clear light”). She took one minute daily at noon to pray for peace in silence.

In 2023 The Focolare Movement promoted this idea as “The Time Out for Peace Project.”

Most of us are at work at that time of day as I am. However if we can’t stop for a whole minute we can stop for a second or two.

The Church provides us with a couple of traditional prayers for noon so that we are all joining together in spirit then. One of these is The Angelus, a Marian prayer prayed for centuries at 6am, noon, and 6pm. This is why the bells of so many Catholic Churches and monasteries ring “Angelus Bells” in a pattern of three times in a row three times. These are a reminder to pray the Angelus. I love the Angelus Prayer and I try to pray it every day. If I can’t, I at least touch foreheads with Our Lady or squeeze her hand or at least pray one Hail Mary at that time. It’s a great way to touch base with her. We can dedicate the Angelus to Peace. After all Mary is the Queen of Peace.

The Angelus

The Angel of God declared unto Mary

R/. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit

Hail Mary…

Behold the Handmaid of the Lord

R/. Let it be done unto me as you have said.

Hail Mary…

And the Word was made flesh (genuflect here)

R/. And dwelt among us.

(stand) Hail Mary…

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
R/. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts: that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The other prayer traditionally prayed at noon is Noon Prayer (or “Sext’) from the Liturgy of the Hours. Lest this sound complicated, there are apps for your phone so you can access this simple prayer break in this middle of the day. The Divine Office App or the Universalis App are both good. You can also access the Liturgy of Hours free online at Universalis. It’s made up of a hymn (I usually skip it), three Psalm selections, a short Scripture reading, and a brief closing prayer. It sounds long but it only takes a few minutes in practice.

I sometimes stop for a minute, and look at Jesus residing in my heart. Once I have greeted him I will tell him I am asking him for peace. Sometimes we talk about it. Other times we are quiet and I occasionally say mentally, “Peace, Lord, Peace,” or I imagine us going around the world calming fear, protecting those in danger, reconciling peoples, stopping bombs. I know I can’t stop anything but he can and he likes to have me along I think. He seems to love sharing his work with us. I see imagination as a way to focus intention and express prayer in the same way words do. We don’t need words in order to pray. Neither do we need imagination to pray, but I find it nice.

Of course you can pray for peace in whatever way you like and for however long or briefly you like. These ideas are only suggestions for anyone who wants them.

The important thing is to take time each day, preferably at noon so we can join together by heart, and the Lord will enjoy the prayers for peace crossing his earth with the sunlight like the movements of a song.

Blessed Chiara Luce, pray for us. For peace.