Soulful Politics

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, Soulful Politics.  Please pray, reflect and dialogue along with us.

Towards a More Perfect Union 

Soulful Politics

  

  

Quotation

Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands. We all have to give something! A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of him or herself, so that those who govern can govern. (Pope Francis, September 13, 2013.)

 

 

Reflection

In every life there is a crossover moment after which a person will never be the same again. Somewhere, somehow the challenge comes that sets us on a different path. The path of purpose. The path of integrity. The path of transcendence that lifts us—heart, mind and soul—above the pitiable level of the mundane.

It is the moment at which transcending the expected, the petty, the daily, becomes more impacting, more holy-making than any amount of political success.

As a culture, we may have come to that point in this culture en massse. It is a call to all of us to be our best, our least superficial, our most serious about what it means to be a Christian as well as a citizen.  

The system we have divided from itself must be put together or we may never really be One, be united as a people, again. MORE (Joan Chittisster, OSB, “A Moment for Something More Soulful than Politics:” Fall 2017.)

 

Music

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize  (Sweet Honey in the Rock) 

Questions for Reflection and Dialogue

How would you name the prize (“Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”)?What does it mean to live the deepest values of the Gospel inthe exercise of citizenship? Where might spiritual and civic selves meet? 

In the midst of the polarization and disunity that seems to surround us, where we find hope for our souls and the soul of our nation? 

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. 

-- Roxanne Schares, SSND