Cover

Table of Contents

Editorial

- Strengthening AFAD’s Unity…

Cover Story

- Years of Trials and Triumphs…

Country Situations

- NO political reform, NO hope for justice…

- Hunger Strike

- Indonesian Human Rights Movement…

- Crime and Punishment

- Anti-enforced Disappearance Bill

Human Interest

- A Life That is Never The Same Again

Photo Essay

- Kashmiri families of missing person stage…

Book Review

- Disappearances in Sri Lanka

Report on International Lobbying

- A Narrative of Contrast

Features

- Where are They?
 
- Working Towards an African Network

- Reduced to Ashes: The Insurgency…

News Brief

Mid Year Report

Prayer 

PRAYER


Prayer 

by: Sister Eithne Hughes, HFB

 

We remember the plight of the world's disappeared,
and pray with and for them, in the words of Psalm 22:

My God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are You so far from helping me,
from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but find o rest.

I am a worm, and not human,
scorned by others and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me:
they make mouths at me,
they shake their heads:
"Commit your cause to God, let God deliver you..."

Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls surrounds me,
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast;
     my mouth is dried up, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
You lay me in the dust of death.

Yet is was You who took me from the womb;
You kept me safe on my mother's breast.
On You I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me,
You have been my God. Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.

In experience and relationship, in solidarity and suffering,
we are close to the disappeared and their families;
we feel the call to serve and to cry out:

We are honored to be present to you,
Holy unnamemable One
, compassionate mystery.
Can you lead us into the communion of shalom and justice?
That is Your desire, that is Your constant longing,
and it is our own great destiny as well.
Today we ask the grace to shout when it hurts,
even though silence is expected of us,
and to listen when others shout,
though it be painful to hear;
To object, to protest, when we feel, taste or observe injustice,
believing that even the unjust and arrogant
are human nonetheless,
and therefore worthy of strong efforts to reach them.
Take from us, o guiding God, the heart of despair,
and fill us with courage and understanding.
Give us a self that knows very well
When the moment has come to take a stand.
We ask for the inspiration to make our voice heard
when we have something that needs to be said,
and we ask the grace to listen
when the meek finally rise up to speak,
and the words are an agony for us.

May we seek together and at all times
to respond to violence with non-violence, to lies with the truth,
and to each other as brothers and sisters.
May we welcome with gratitude the richness
and diversity of culture and tradition,
of belief and faith,
of history and experience that is ours,
and may we decide and act together
out of the conviction that we are united in our humanity
under the Creator, and called to play our part in the struggle
to build a world where involuntary disappearance 
will be erased forever from our lives.

        


VOICE September 2003

 

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