PRAYER MUST BE CONVERTED INTO CIVIC ACTION AT THE BALLOT BOX

Posted on February 12, 2024 by franksantucci

We continue to read Bishop Eugene’s Pastoral Letter to the people of Marseilles on the forthcoming elections:

You will therefore strive, our dear brothers, to implore heaven by your most fervent supplications, but you will not restrict yourselves to expressing a feeling of piety and trust at the foot of the altars, you will also not neglect the obligations of another kind which are imposed on you in the name of France; you will exercise the legal action which belongs to you, and you will cast your vote in the ballot box, from which, humanly speaking, the salvation of the fatherland must emerge.

Pastoral letter from the Bishop of Marseilles, on the occasion of the general elections and the forthcoming opening of the National Assembly, March 20, 1848

REFLECTION

“A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.” (Thomas Jefferson)

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1 Response to PRAYER MUST BE CONVERTED INTO CIVIC ACTION AT THE BALLOT BOX

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Lay Oblate says:
    February 12, 2024 at 12:47

    This “rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and unto God that which belongs to (ed. and is of) God” (Mk 12:17) is not limited for the times of election, nor is just for the sake of feeling good: it is our responsibility to and with each other. We do not turn off the spirituality of our lives with God the moment we leave the church…

    It truly is about how we walk in that liminal space between humanness and the divine. Turning prayer into action then becomes a part of our breathing in and breathing out: we carry our humanity during our physical time here on earth, even as we grow spiritually.

    Jesus showed us his humanity by allowing himself to die in the most humbling and painful way, and then when he was resurrected… For some reason I find myself thinking of the line from Luke 23: 45 when the “veil of the temple was torn down the middle…”

    It is from this that we are led through our life’s journey: together as pilgrims of hope in communion. And God most surely sees this and pronounces it “to be good”.

    Reply

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