JPIC Discernment Tool (Step 6: Prayer)

The Development & Peace 2016 campaign prayer sums up my understanding for our call as Secular Franciscans to serve justice, promote peace and care for the integrity of creation.

Loving God, You who created everything that is good; You who stretch out the heavens like a tent.
You have made us for each other.
You call us from our isolation into one community of love.
Your voice is sure and strong.
We come from many places, and yet we are woven together in Your Spirit.
Together, we hear the cry of the poor, bearing the weight of injustice.
Together, we see the pain of the Earth as her beauty is destroyed.
Together, we hear your voice most clearly:
Calling us to join in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in need;
​Calling us to commit ourselves,
as Ruth to Naomi saying,
“Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay.”
O Lord, stretch the canvas of our hearts that we might make room for the suffering of all humanity, and of all creation.
Today, by your grace, we join our lives to those who labour in the fields – those who are weighed down by injustice and those who work to build the world according to your way.
​Lead us in the way of discipleship – the way of love, of faith, of justice, and of peace – the way that has always been yours. Amen. 
                                   - Development & Peace 2016 Campaign Prayer

"Prayer"

​So I hope by running through my ‘life’ Examen, you have a sense of the Examen prayer and how it can be used to move you from your time of contemplation into your time of action. The Examen is to:

1. begin with an attitude of gratitude,
2. review a period of time (normally the present day) in your life,
3. notice the things that jump out at you (notice what you notice),
4. reflect on those highlighted moments so you might come to an understanding of God’s personal message for you,
5. take this to heart & respond to God’s call (create a plan of action),
6. and finally rest so that you might give praise to God for the gift of His creation.​

This JPIC Examen can be used to purposefully set aside a time each day to ask God for His help and guidance in your mission to care for His creation (human and non-human) and the most vulnerable among us. Together might we be strengthened in our common pursuit for ecological and social justice.

  Offer your prayer for the earth and the vulnerable in our society……..

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