A Litany for the Signs of Our Times
Tags: Prayer, Racial Justice, Jesuit, Solidarity, Healing

The directors of campus ministry within the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), in an expression of prayer and lament for the racial injustice in our country, offer a litany for the signs of our times. These words (written by Carly Lynch and Julia Claire Santos, campus ministers at Santa Clara University) are shared in prayerful humility and deep desire for the spiritual transformation so desperately needed in our communities. We bear witness, and we pray and work to respond in effective, tangible and faithful ways.

Commitment to Witness & Respond for Racial Justice

By bearing witness, we commit to staying awake to the injustice around us, and shedding our ignorance for the sake of compassion, whenever and wherever possible. If you too are willing to witness these things, we ask that after each statement, you may respond, “I will be a witness.”

We witness:

• We witness that Black Lives UNDENIABLY Matter, and they matter with a particular and unshakeable urgency.

• We witness that what is a justice system to some, is a death sentence to others

• We witness that the founding of our nation relied upon the looting of indigenous land, and the looting of African citizens from their own country.

• We witness that all white people benefit from a nation and culture of white supremacy, and the need for all white people to actively work to identify and dismantle personal and collective actions and systems of injustice.

• We witness that now is not the first time Native American bodies have been disproportionately exposed to illness so that white culture and economy can proceed.

• We witness that systems of oppression set in place long before this pandemic (including, but not limited to housing, employment, health care and economic inequality) have caused people of color to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

• We witness that the hate-crimes and discrimination against Asian Americans and those perceived to be of Asian heritage since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic reflect a continuing pattern of scapegoating Asian Americans for social, economic and political crises.

• We witness our nation’s disproportionate fear of property and capital being destroyed, more than the fear of black lives being unjustly lost.

• We witness that the economic downturn will most affect communities of color, and that most aid will be given to wealthy white individuals of power.

• We witness that our own Jesuit institutions are not free from a history of racial injustice and the existence of racial injustice today.

• We witness that while armed white men were recently allowed to walk into a government building untouched, chemicals and rubber bullets are being launched into crowds of protesters pleading that black bodies ceased being killed.

• We witness how Latina/o/x bodies have been targeted, scrutinized, harassed, apprehended, detained, imprisoned, deported and dehumanized in this country; how Latina/o/x families and students are subject to daily forms of intimidation and fear; how Latina/o/x children continue to be forcibly separated from their parents; and how the labor of Latina/o/x workers is once again marginalized in this moment as many are being forced to go back to work in unsafe conditions for the convenience of others.

• We witness a culture that has educated and habituated our primary reaction to black men to be one of fear.

• We witness protests, demonstrations, rebellions and riots as the language of the unheard and neglected.

• We witness that cumulative and chronic experiences of racism and white supremacy are experienced physically in cumulative and chronic ways in black bodies.

• We witness the pain and grief we collectively feel as witnesses to this repetitive and pervasive violence.

• We witness that racial injustice has no place in our society and must stop. Everyone deserves to be treated equally and feel safe. We must find a way to bring people together to effect change, and that begins with conversation and action.

• We witness that present events of violence and injustice bring up and re-open old wounds. Black people and People of Color are suffering wounds beyond this current moment.

And because we witness all that has been mentioned (and unmentionably more), we pray and work to respond in effective, tangible and faithful ways. If you too are committed to responding, we ask that you, in your own space, respond “I will do the work.”

We pray and work for:

• We pray and work for reverence and respect for all, especially those most marginalized, recognizing that we are created as brothers and sisters, children of the one God.

• We pray and work for creative and effective ways to achieve justice, equality and safety for people of color.

• We pray and work for the sustained and complete unlearning of white supremacy.

• We pray and work for a peace that passes all understanding. A peace that systems of oppression, white supremacy and white supremacists, and the “American Dream” may never understand.

• We pray and work for radical and lasting change to the pervasive racism of police forces and institutional relationships to policing.

• We pray and work for greater awareness and cessation of insidious forms of racism.

• We pray and work for the conversion of our own eyes, hearts and hands so that we see, credit and respond urgently to the suffering of our black and brown sisters and brothers.

• We pray and work to center the black voices that are offering tangible cures to the insidious cultural disease of racism.

• We pray and work to have the humility to recognize how we contribute to injustice and to commit ourselves to be agents of positive change.

• We pray and work to be seen, heard, validated and respected as human beings that matter.

• We pray and work for a world in which true and full racial justice is understood to be everyone’s concern.

• We pray and work for ears to hear the needs of individuals and communities of color, and respond with real change beyond our thoughts and prayers.

• We pray and work for the disruption and dismantling of structural and institutional systems of oppression. May we fight white supremacy and anti-blackness in our nation, on our campuses and in ourselves.

• We pray and work for greater elevation, recognition and media coverage of the excellence and accomplishments of Black Americans, and Black lives globally.

• We pray and work for the courageous parents of black children, children of color, and white children alike, as they watch and guide their children, growing up in a land of inequity and injustice.

• We pray and work for continued safety in our common home, for all those who continue to live in our residence halls, so that they find respite, comfort and peace, a peace that settles into their hearts.

• We pray and work for our Black and Brown LGBTQI+ siblings as we continue to fight for freedom to express our gender identities and sexual orientations without fear of violence and victimization.

• We pray and work for physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological support for the most vulnerable among us.