Out of Many One

 VOTE  2020

Election Reflection

As members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States we invite you to join us in our 2020 Election Reflection Process, Towards A More Perfect Union.  Each week until Election Day, November 3^rd, we will highlight a reflection and dialogue theme.  This week’s Election Reflection is entitled, Out of Many One.  Please pray, reflect and dialogue along with us.

Towards a More Perfect Union

Out of Many One

Scripture

“Enlarge the space of your tent. Stretch out your tent cloth unsparingly.” (Isaiah 54:2) 

 

Reflection

Building a future of freedom requires love of the common good and cooperation in a spirit of subsidiarity and solidarity...Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments, and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples... Politics is an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular int+erests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort (Pope Francis, Address to the US Congress, September 24, 2015)

Music

Finlandia (Jean Sibelius)

 

Questions for Reflection and Dialogue

We are challenged to stretch out our tent cloth unsparingly. What might that call look like in today’s world? What parts of my tent need stretching?

 

Individual freedom and sacrifice for the common good are often seen as competing ‘goods.’ What would it take to come to a place where we know in our deepest being that the common good is my good?

Closing Prayer

God of all, in this year of election, in these days of discernment, IGNITE us with fire of your love. ENFLAME our hearts with courage to embrace dialogue that transforms and truth that frees. KINDLE our love with kindness to heal divisions and reconcile relationships. LIGHT our imaginations with insight to envision and create a world where all are one. STIR our actions with justice and peace to engage critical concerns and cherish all of life. FIRE our lives with audacity and hope to risk all for God’s mission. (SSND)