Clare Pratt, RSCJ, and Diane Roche, RSCJ, represented Anne Montgomery House (a Province welcoming community) at a moving Ash Wednesday liturgy in front of the White House, praying for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hamas that has caused so much suffering and destruction.
Most of the hundred or so people who participated were from Catholic groups in the Washington, D.C. area who have been working together for years to protect the environment, address systemic racism, meet the needs of immigrants and search for ways to peacefully resolve conflicts at all levels. Sister Roche said that it was both painful to acknowledge our own and our government's complicity and yet, inspiring to be with others who insist on believing that the beloved community can still be called into being by our small, daily decisions to chose love, to be love.
Read more about this gathering:
Franciscan Action Network: Ceasefire Ash Wednesday Mass
