Contemplating Radical Love – Francis Rivers Meza

In recent weeks, many migrants have lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea.  Today, Francis Rivers, Executive Director of the American Waldensian Society, invites us to contemplate radical love as radical inclusion.

Invoking the Spirit of Third Isaiah  (Isaiah 56:1-8)

We grieve and ask your forgiveness, God,

for the practices of radical exclusion that immigrants suffer as they seek to escape conditions of war, famine and poverty in their homelands.

We grieve and ask your forgiveness, Lord,

for the misery that countless immigrants have had to endure during harrowing journeys.

We mourn and ask your forgiveness, God,

for the fact that the Mediterranean Sea has become the unmarked grave for thousands of men, women, and children whose names we will never know.

Forgive us, Lord.

Fill us anew, we pray,

with the vision of justice and inclusion that Third Isaiah offers us,

and if it be your will,

impart on us a double portion of prophetic spirit.

Amen.

Siamo addolorati e chiediamo il tuo perdono, Dio, per l ‘esclusione radicale che gli immigrati soffrono mentre cercano di sfuggire a condizioni di guerra, dalla fame e dalla povertà belle loro terre d’origine. Siamo addolorati e chiediamo il tuo perdono, Signore, per la miseria che innumerevoli immigrati hanno dovuto sopportare durante i loro viaggi strazianti. Noi piangiamo e chiediamo il tuo perdono, Dio, per il fatto che il Mar Mediterraneo è diventato la tomba anonima per migliaia di uomini, donne e bambini, i cui nomi non li sapremo mai. Perdonaci, Signore. Rinnova in noi  la visione di giustizia e d’inclusione che Isaia ci offre, e se è tua volontà, imparti a noi una doppia porzione dello spirito profetico. Amen.

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Francis Rivers Meza is a Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  He works as a Supervisor of Clinical Pastoral Education at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC, and as a member of FaithHealth NC.  Since 2006, Francis has served as the Executive Director of the American Waldensian Society.