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February 1, 2025
First, we want to thank Bishop Budde for the public spiritual leadership that she offered our nation in this homily.
For persons of faith, it was encouraging and edifying to hear her words that appealed to unity in this time of deep national division. These words were a light in the midst of darkness, offering again the ancient legacy we carry from the Teacher of Nazareth.
We are grateful to Bishop Budde for her excellent ministry among us.
Second, we call upon our churches to apply the Christian practice of Lectio Divina to her text as a way to keep this light alive as we walk in the darkness of national disunity.
It could go like this for us as individuals and as groups:
1. Let us sit with and actively engage this text.
What is she saying?
What specific themes am I noticing?
This kind of active reading demands that we empty our attention of other things and focus on what she wants to say to us.
2. Let us bring our questions to the text about ourselves and our country.
What strikes me or touches me the most about what she is saying?
What am I particularly drawn to and why?
What has my experience been with a particular theme that is touching me?
How do I find myself responding on a heart level?
3. Then we can ask ourselves…
What do I want to say to the Teacher who is clearly standing in front of me saying these words (through the authentic stewardship and service of Bishop Budde) about how this is hitting me?
And what do we hear the Living Christ saying in our own hearts in response?
4. Then as we become aware of being in the presence of the Living One…
Let us slow way down and open ourselves, without words perhaps, to simply be in communion with the One who cleanses our hearts, enlightens our path, and is worthy of our trust.
Let us in this way take these beautifully crafted (but more than that, living and evocative) words of human dignity, honesty, and humility to our own thirsty hearts and pray for God’s help in acting upon them.
You may find the text here:
https://edow.org/2025/01/22/a-service-of-prayer-for-the-nation-homily/
The Bishops of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion
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Ecumenical Catholic Communion
Office of Presiding Bishop
10 W. Lockwood Blvd.
Webster Groves, MO. 63119
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