PRAY FOR THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU
This part week on October 12, we celebrated the life of WALTER CISZEK SJ who was freed on that day in 1963 after 23 years in prison in the Soviet Union for doing clandestine missionary work. He described his experiences in :With God in Russia” and “He Leadeth Me”. He wrote: Gradually, too, I learned to purify my prayer and remove from it the elements of self-seeking. I learned to pray for my interrogators, not so they would see things my way or come to the truth so that my ordeal would end, but because they, too, were children of God and human beings in need of his blessing and his daily grace. I learned to stop asking for more bread for myself, and instead to offer up all my sufferings, the pains of hunger that I felt, for the many others in the world and in Russia at that time who were enduring similar agony and even greater suffering. I tried very hard not to worry about what tomorrow would bring, what I should eat or what I should wear, but rather to seek the kingdom of God and his justice, his will for me and for all mankind.”..Walter Ciszek SJ – He Leadeth Me Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven…Luke 6:37 Reflect on the Scripture above. What comes to mind in regard to your own responses – yes even those responses to public figures, to politicians and the llke!
