The Power of Shared Heartbreak

  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 3rd, we will highlight a reflection and dialogue theme.  This week’s Election Reflection is entitled, The Power of Shared Heartbreak.  Please pray, reflect and dialogue along with us.

Towards a More Perfect Union

  

The Power of Shared Heartbreak

  

  

Scripture

“The Lord rebuilds Jerusalem, and gathers the dispersed people of Israel, healing the brokenhearted, and binding up their wounds.” (Psalm 147: 2-3) 

 

 

Reflection

Despite our sharp disagreements on the nature of the American dream, many of us on the left, on the right, and in the center have at least this much in common: a shared experience of heart-break about the condition of our culture, our society, our body politic. That shared heartbreak can build a footbridge of mutual understanding on which we can walk toward each other. 

Our sharpest disagreements need not be the seeds of democracy’s destruction. If we know how to hold their tensions in ways that open our hearts, they can become proof of democracy’s genius and drivers of its renewal. -- Parker Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy (Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 2011), 59.

 

Music

You Can Do This Hard Thing (Carrie Newcomer)

 

Questions for Reflection and Dialogue

 

What are your primary concerns about how our democracy is functioning? What breaks your heart?

Do you believe it’s possible for people who deeply disagree with each other politically to come together around shared concerns for democracy itself?

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.