I received a fascinating question today.
“How does a contemplative, prayerful person respond to horror like what happened in Boston?”
Hmm…how indeed?
Here are my two cents worth:
- Pray. Offer up your fear, your pleas for safety, your desire for life.
- Sit in mournful silence.
- Pray again. Offer up your anger, your need for answers, your desire for vengeful justice.
- Sift through emotions in silence.
- Pray again. Offer up your hope for peace, your gratefulness for heroes, your sympathy for loss.
- Create a gift of beauty that expresses your grief and offer it in humility.
- Pray for wisdom and guidance.
- Wait in silence for any actions you are called to take.
- Pray about the step you are holding in silence.
- Only after being sure of the wisdom in a calling and the source of calling, take action.
These may take days or months to complete. While you may say that such violence requires swift movement, I wonder if swift answers are true.
