The following vigil report for September 24, 2000, is from Kathryn Gordon:
The week before had been a small breakthrough. I noticed I'd been feeling family-absorbed — praying only for the healing and opening of those in my biological family, and a few extended others. What of the world, the wars, the hundreds who walked past the vigil every Sunday from every class and nearly every continent on the planet?
Well, there were times when I opened to love and compassion for them, rarer times of an intimate one-ness when they were more than family, but not today, an overcast day with fewer tourists and six vigilers. I tried to work with this limitation. I made a game of it. I closed my eyes and said — when I open my eyes, the first person I see I will pray for, love, and know as I do my father. Poof — man the age my father would have been, but balder (well, who knows?). I could feel him, pray hard for him. Ditto my sister, my brothers. And each time I opened my eyes they fell first on someone the right sex and approximately the right age, and each time it worked, but then my mind wandered, but I called it back, remembering reading somewhere that each time we call our minds back that effort alone is the worship, the exercised willingness to attend to spirit's call.
A middle-aged woman walked by, trailing two others, her pace brisk, face bright. "Thank you," she kept saying, nodding, meeting our eyes. "Thank you."
Mostly the vigils are silent but I said, "You're welcome, you're welcome."
I think I know why I'm coming now, why I keep coming. Oh that my family were already healed, at peace.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE
Independence Mall Vigil for PeacePlease join us at our weekly prayer vigils for peace in the world, held in front of the Liberty Bell on Market St. between 5th and 6th, every Sunday from 4 to 5 PM. For more information, contact cityquake@aol.com.
In our reports, participants share their experiences of the prayer vigils and explore beliefs related to their participation. Reports reflect the experience of each author and do not necessarily represent the beliefs or practice of all vigil participants. We welcome your responses, which are forwarded to the individual authors (when possible). We sometimes include part of a response in a future report, unless you ask us not to.
It is meaningful to us that you share in the vigils by reading these reports and in other ways, such as joining us in prayer.
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM