 |
| Mural of Salvadoran Archbishop St. Oscar Romero at the Columban Mission Center in El Paso, Texas. AMERICA magazine, the Jesuit Review |
Meeting ID: 815 0755 1772
To connect by phone dial: +1 646 558 8656
A Prayerful Moment with St. Oscar Romero
August 15, 1917 - March 24, 1980
Feast Day - March 24
OPENING PRAYER: A Prayer for the Feast of St. Oscar Romero
St. Óscar Romero, courageous prophet and shepherd,
Forty years ago, you cried out for peace,
For an end to violence and oppression.
Here we find ourselves, again,
Witnessing atrocities and untold suffering,
Suffering enough to shake our faith in humanity,
Perhaps even our faith in God.
St. Óscar Romero, you walked this road before us—
Infuse us with your holy wisdom,
Your brave commitment to speaking the truth,
Your persistence in breathing hope into hopeless situations,
Until our voices are united with yours
In one sacred call that echoes from heaven to earth:
In the name of God, stop this war. Amen.
VIDEO 1: Blessed Among Us: St. Oscar Romero Sheen Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ZW2dz4qdo
READING 1: Through Prayer We Find the Strength to Change
Our journey to understand mysticism has connected us to the lives of bona fide mystics, as we follow the path mystical longing takes us. We have prayed with the spirits of women and men from several continents and countries, who held Christian beliefs as well as other views of the Great Mystery. We realize that throughout history spiritual seekers have experienced seismic changes in how we experience and witness our beliefs about the Holy One, a “paradigm shift” that we can observe every day. St. Oscar Romero is an example of how an individual’s spiritual paradigm shift in later years affected this devout Roman Catholic Archbishop, who had spent his earlier life assisting and defending the hierarchy’s patriarchal view and practice of Catholicism. It may have taken most of his life to truly “get” the message of Jesus, but at last this intimate relationship propelled him to listen to his conscience, speak out against the oppressors and for the voiceless. The transfiguration of his call to ministry resulted in a changed future for his nation. “Old dogs” can and must learn new insights and behaviors, that is, essential aspects of the Sermon on the Mount. His story shakes our senses and helps us bust out of our comfortable wheelhouse and do something more courageous as we continue to answer our call to live the Gospel message.
A young Fr. Oscar Romero studied in Rome before being sent home to El Salvador.
READING 2
According to William D. McCorkle, when Romero was elevated to the position of Archbishop, the wealthy were delighted because they saw him as one of their allies.” He had risen through the clergy ranks due to his traditional spirituality and restrained emotions. His predecessor in San Salvador, Luiz Chavez, assisted in organizing the conservative “Opus Dei,” which supported the small wealthy class controlling the riches of the country. It was believed that new Archbishop Romero would maintain orthodox views, not someone who would be shaken to the core, changing his thinking to align Gospel ideals of service and equality for the poor. However, we know the Holy One’s ways are not ours. The winds of change from Vatican II and Latin American Liberation Theology were blowing in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, as sociocultural influences proffered a change in thinking regarding certain earlier interpretations of the Gospel message.
PRAYER 2 Inspired Prayer for Compassion of the Oppressed
Holy One, we come before You, enlightened by the bravery of St. Oscar Romero, pleading for courage to take action for those oppressed. Grant us the eyes to see their suffering and the strength to act in love. May Your compassion flow through us, bringing hope and healing to those in despair. Help us, as we, like St. Oscar Romero, are active instruments of Your peace, advocating for justice and lifting the burdens of the marginalized. Grant us the courage to speak the truth with love and integrity. In moments of fear or doubt, empower us to share Your light and wisdom boldly. May our words reflect Your grace, bringing healing and understanding to those around us. Help us to stand firm in our convictions, always seeking justice and compassion, with deep gratitude for the model of St. Oscar Romero. May it be so.
Adapted/ St. Michael’s Parish Prayers
Father Oscar Romero taking the Sacraments to the people.
VIDEO 2: 40th Anniversary of Death of St. Oscar Romero
https://youtu.be/2dY03-b6Bvc
READING 3 Time to Listen to Conscience and Take Action
As a new Archbishop, two events came into focus for Oscar Romero. A month after being elevated to the episcopate, his close friend, Jesuit priest Fr. Rutilio Grande, who was organizing the poor in self-help groups, was brutally murdered. Organizing for change was seen by the government to be threatening to the people in power. Horrific violence toward progressive groups spread across El Salvador. Secondly, he became aware of an explosion of violence affecting the unionized farmers, freedom fighters, and the priests that stood with them. From this time forward, Archbishop Romero, lifelong conservative, experienced a spiritual paradigm shift of his own, a change in his theology, in his understanding of what the Holy One was asking of him. The government refused to investigate the murder of Fr. Rutilio, and the reports of daily brutal killings increased. This brought him to his knees spiritually as he realized he was being asked for action on his part; he must break from the silence other clergy kept to keep peace with the government. It spurred him to a substantial change in thinking, as he witnessed the world’s greatest economic and social inequality in his country resulting in desperate violence. The few elites owned the wealth, but the majority lived in raging poverty. It had to change! The political and social madness was antithetical to the call of Christ to love all our brothers and sisters, treating each with the love Jesus demonstrated for the marginalized, sick, and poverty stricken. Oscar Romero was first and foremost a lover of Jesus, and the connection of his spiritual life to life on the street and farms in El Salvador had crashed together. He was called to speak truth to power! We can close our eyes and imagine how his prayer life, his mystical longing for closeness to the Holy One, was impacted by his change in worldview.
Archbishop Oscar Romero is seen in an undated photo working in an improvised radio studio in the Salvadoran capital. His Sunday sermons were broadcast all over the country. America, the Jesuit magazine.
PRAYER 3 Prayer of Gratitude for St. Óscar Romero
Holy One,
We give thanks for the life of Saint Oscar Romero,
who spread your message
and struggled against injustice in El Salvador.
Like you, he was a shepherd, a pastor, a brother;
Like you, he was taken from us;
Like you, he remains in our hearts.
Spirit of hope, work within us, just as you worked
in Saint Oscar Romero, so that we too may work for justice
and spread the Good News, by living out the Gospel,
in solidarity with those living in poverty. Amen.
By Jack Tunnecliffe Jesuit Missions
REFLECTIONS
Archbishop Romero had a makeshift radio station set up to broadcast his Sunday homilies. On January 23, 1980, a bomb blew up the transmission equipment set up for the broadcast known as Voz Panamericana, the “Voice of America”. Every Sunday he read out the names of those who had been murdered or had disappeared, further angering the government. It appears this was a man who had truly felt a personal transformation rather than one who had embraced the Marxist ideologies flowing at that time. He was martyred because of the truth he spoke and acted, from the heart of the Gospel.
“If one day, they took our radio station away from us, closed the newspaper or didn’t let us speak; if they killed off all of our priests and the bishop too, then each one of you would have to be a microphone for God. God’s best microphone is Christ, and Christ’s best microphone is the church, and the church, is all of you.”
Let us examine a few of his quotes that reached from the capital San Salvador to the farms and villages all over El Salvador. Pause briefly between them for us to pray silently, thinking of ways to apply his advice to making change in our own lives.
1.
REFLECT
2.
“The ones who have a voice must speak for the ones who are voiceless.”
REFLECT
3.
REFLECT
4.
REFLECT
I Am the Land A Poem in Memory of St. Oscar Romero
I am the land.
I am the grass growing.
I am the trees.
I am the wind, the voice calling.
I am the poor.
I am the hungry.
The doors of the church are open
as wide as the heart of a man.
In times of trouble
here is a rock, here is a hand.
God knows the meaning of our prayers.
I have asked our government to listen.
God is not dead
and I will never die.
I am the land.
I am the grass growing.
I am the trees.
I am the wind, the voice calling.
I am the poor.
I am the hungry.
He who is resurrected is revolutionary.
He who is resurrected believes in peace.
This is the meaning of light.
This is the meaning of love.
The souls of my people are the pages of history.
The people of El Salvador are the people of the world.
I am Oscar Romero, a humble servant.
I am the land.
I am all the people who have no land.
I am the grass growing.
I am all the children who have been murdered.
I am the trees.
I am the priests, the nuns, the believers.
I am the wind, the voice calling.
I am the poets who will sing forever.
I am the poor.
I am the dreamer whose dreams overflow with hope.
I am the hungry.
I am the people.
I am Oscar Romero. – E. Ethelbert Miller
CLOSING PRAYER A Step Along the Way VIDEO
(WORDS FROM THE VIDEO IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FOLLOW)
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. . . .
This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and to do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.
250,000 ATTEND THE FUNERAL OF ARCHBISHOP ROMERO
References
Afflick, Clive Henry. “The History and Politics of Liberation Theology in Latin American and the Caribbean.” University of Miami Dissertations, 1989. (n.d.).
Gushee, D. P., & Holtz, C. (2018). Moral Leadership for a Divided Age. Brazos Press.
Gutierrez, G. (2023). A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation 50th Anniversary Edition with New Introduction by Michael E. Lee).
https://www.thenation.com/authors .
Is Pope Francis the New Champion of Liberation Theology? The Nation. Harvey Cox
http://www.thenation.com/article/177651/ (2013, December 18).
Lernoux, P. (1982). Cry of the People. Penguin Group.
Løland, O. J. (2021). The Solved Conflict: Pope Francis and Liberation Theology. International Journal of Latin American Religions. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-021-00137-3
Mazurcazk, Filip. “Oscar Romero’s Exaggerated Critics.” First Things, March 7, 2013. (n.d.).
McCorkle, W. (2015). Oscar Romero and the Resurgence of Liberationist Thought William David McCorkle Clemson University [Masters Thesis].
Romero, O. (2021). The Violence of Love. Orbis Books.
Smith, G. (2009). Radical Compassion. Loyola Press.
Wright, S. (2015). Oscar Romero and the Communion of Saints. Orbis Books.
(n.d.).
“Reprinted from www.bruderhof.com.
Copyright 2003 by The Bruderhof Foundation, Inc.
SONG: Oh Romero! The Archbishop Romero Trust http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/resources/songs
A reflection on the Feast of St Oscar Romero By Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ, 24 March 2021 from The Catholic Outlook, Diocese of Paramatta, the Catholic Church in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains
LIBERATION_THEOLOGY_The_Paradigm_Shift
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358573742_
WHO WAS HE
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/archbishop-oscar-romero-quotes_n_7423204
The Violence of Love Compiled and translated by James R. Brockman. “Reprinted from www.bruderhof.com. Copyright 2003 by The Bruderhof Foundation, Inc.
Conference of Latin American Bishops. “Excerpts on Justice, Peace, and Poverty from
the Final Document.” Medellin Conference. Medellin, 1968.
https://youtu.be/hDAUMTIGg2g 4 minute video St. O R and the Cost of Following Jesus
https://youtu.be/W3ZW2dz4qdo 2.44 min Blessed Among Us St. O R Sheen Center
INSPIRED PRAYERS: From St. Michael’s Parish, 27 Prayers Inspired by St. Oscar Romero https://stmparish.org/prayer/saints-and-biblical-figures/oscar-romero-prayer/#
Photos
NCR Online
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.