small_Sr P Colletti_2014(2)

First Friday Prayer

Photos and Blog Post by Sister Patrice Colletti, SDS
Kateri Initiative – Sisseton, South Dakota

Admittedly, it’s easy to be attentive to the gift of Creation when living in a place that has more space full of natural things than human-made things.

… where trees seem to grow right before your eyes…

… where in a single day, a field goes from empty to the green lines of early corn.

Last year, during the stay-at-home times of the pandemic, I participated in an online training program to become a Laudato Si Animator. Not only was this an excellent opportunity to take a deep dive into the Encyclical, but it offered new ways for me to continue to integrate the Gospel call, reflected in Catholic Social Teaching, with my own daily life.

One of the practices I am finding meaningful is joining others around the globe each first Friday to pray together. Some days there are fifty people praying together; other days, several hundred. Each time, a different continent “hosts” the prayer. It’s translated so it is available across languages. It is a way (an additional way) to live the solidarity that humanity so desperately needs to see in this time of such division and isolation, of politicization and polarization.

And, even though it is set for the first Friday of each month, one can easily access it any time, any day. Prayer, like most of life, doesn’t require a strict schedule.

We so often bemoan the fact that we can no longer march in the streets or undertake some other action that underscores our belief that we can make a real difference in our world or respond to a call for justice.

Prayer is one way that’s open to all of us. Why not join with all the others who have committed to one day, one hour a month to unite in prayer for all of Creation and for all of the poor? It is both a powerful solidarity and a powerful witness.

Here’s the prayer from June: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2ZGuxKVreo
Here’s the general web location: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClR9vhKimNUhIVyKM1X3QVA

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