DEC 12: NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER IN SOLIDARITY WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

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“The Canadian Catholic Indigenous Council, founded by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in 1998, proposes that the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12) be a National Day of Prayer in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples. All are invited to join their Indigenous sisters and brothers in a special way this day through prayer and acts of solidarity….” Ordo 2021-2022, p. 86.

What acts of solidarity can we participate in today?

  • Start the day by learning whose traditional land your house sits on and make a land acknowledgement to your family
  • Spend some time reading the Executive Summary of the MMIWG report
  • Watch a movie like Smoke Signals and enjoy Indigenous humour
  • Take a walk by a body of water and appreciate all that water does for us
  • Read Amnesty International’s guide to being an ally to Indigenous peoples
  • Plan to participate in a Kairos blanket exercise to learn about the effects of colonialization

Let us pray

Creator, Healer, Spirit,

guide our steps today as we walk in solidarity with our Indigenous sisters and brothers.

May we see the truth and beauty of Indigenous culture and spirituality.

Help us to acknowledge when our thoughts and feelings become defensive or subtly ethnocentric.

Our desire is reconciliation and reconcili-action. 

We don’t want one without the other.

Amen.

Pat Carter, CSJ is a disciple, a teacher and an advocate for the poor. She has been a Sister of St. Joseph for more than half of her life and loves to use words to inspire faith and laughter. She is a cantor at her parish of St. Jerome’s in Sault Ste. Marie.

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