Many in our country feel overwhelmed by the current state of affairs. In addition to our ongoing concerns about the coronavirus (and considering the many people who have “firsthand” experience with it, either as patients or as caregivers to those who are infected), these past days have seen an increase in social unrest as manifested by protests in many cities, not all of which have been peaceful or absent of violence themselves.
Each day at the conventual Mass, the monks offer a prayer of special intention for healing and peace during this time of unrest and pain.
Last week, seven U.S. bishop chairmen of committees within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement in the wake of the death of Mr. George Floyd and the protests that have broken out in Minneapolis and other cities in the United States. Their statement included a plea to all Catholics to pray and work for healing and peace:
[W]e call upon all Catholics to pray and work toward a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray for a supernatural desire to rid ourselves of the harm that bias and prejudice cause. We call upon Catholics to pray to the Holy Spirit for the Spirit of Truth to touch the hearts of all in the United States and to come down upon our criminal justice and law enforcement systems. Finally, let each and every Catholic, regardless of their ethnicity, beg God to heal our deeply broken view of each other, as well as our deeply broken society.
Responding to the bishops’ call and to the urgent need for peace in our cities and in our hearts, the monks of Saint Meinrad Archabbey will mark this coming week with several times of special prayer.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of this week (June 8, 10 and 12), as the monks assemble at the noon hour for Midday Prayer, they will begin with three minutes of silence, the silence broken only by the ringing of the largest of the six bells in our church’s tower.
As this three-minute period concludes, Archabbot Kurt Stasiak, OSB, will offer a prayer for peace and healing, and then the monks will proceed with their 10-minute midday prayer as usual.
This largest bell, dedicated to the Trinity, dates to 1889, and carries its original inscription (in Latin): “Glory to the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit; Free us, save us, enliven us, Blessed Trinity.”
The monks invite you to join them via livestream for this brief but special prayer: www.saintmeinrad.org/live.