Throughout the day, we’ll be featuring 3 pieces for you to consider for prayer, study and action on this anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. The pieces were pulled together and formatted by Pax Christi USA National Council member and Romero biographer Scott Wright. To learn more about Romero, click here. For an excellent archive of resources on Romero, visit US Catholic’s website by clicking here.
Today’s first piece focuses on PRAYER, and invites you to pray with Romero, using words from his 1980 Lenten homily.
PRAY
Pray with Archbishop Romero as you listen to words of his Lenten 1980 homily:
This Lent, which we observe amid blood and sorrow, ought to presage a transfiguration of our people, a resurrection of our nation. The church invites us to a modern form of penance, of fasting and prayer… But it should not be out of a mistaken sense of resignation. God does not want that. Rather, feeling in one’s flesh the consequences of sin and injustice, one is stimulated to work for social justice and a genuine love for the poor. Our Lent should awaken a sense of social justice…
Let us not let Christ be absent from our history. That is what is most important at this moment in our nation’s history: that Christ be God’s glory and power, and that the scandal of the cross and of pain not make us flee from Christ and cast aside suffering. Instead, let us embrace it…. The great need today is for Christians who are active and critical, who don’t accept situations without analyzing them inwardly and deeply. We no longer want masses of people like those who have been trifled with for so long. We want persons like fruitful fig trees, who can say yes to justice and no to injustice and can make use of the precious gift of life, regardless of the circumstances…
A Church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what Gospel is that?
Pray: God of Life and Peace, you inspired your servant, Oscar Romero, to be a prophetic witness for justice and peace. Open our hearts to the sound of your call for peace in these times. Give us the courage to respond and the wisdom to know how. Help us to quell all violence in our world, especially that violence for which we are directly responsible. Let us call all people brother and sister and contribute in palpable ways to the transformation of the world. Amen.
What a great man and a blessing to us all. the Cleveland Diocese had priest and sisters there in El Salvador at this time. We lost a sister and a lay women there.
Christ knows that here in Delaware USA – for the poor who have not yet sold their soul …. things are little better than they were for Oscar Romero in El Salvador … for as HE said – ‘My Kingdom is not of this world’ …. so we only do what we are able – while we hope the devil doesn’t kill all our friends too young …