Fourth week of Lent, March 30-April 5

Thursday, March 27, 2025

Dear Judy,

In 2016, addressing a packed crowd of mourners at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York City, the longtime peace advocate Elizabeth McAlister remembered her brother-in-law, the late Jesuit priest and poet Daniel Berrigan, as a man of hope. During his funeral (held on May 6), McAlister related how conversations with Berrigan, who rose to national prominence alongside his brother Philip as a nonviolent voice of conscience during the Vietnam era, would typically conclude with some questions. “What gives you hope these days?” Daniel Berrigan would ask. And a related prompt: “What are you doing that gives you hope?”

In 2024, Pope Francis provided some answers to the former question when he proclaimed 2025 as the Jubilee Year of Hope. “The death and resurrection of Jesus is the heart of our faith and the basis of our hope,” Pope Francis wrote last May. He noted that hope is not simply a passive emotion, something that one feels from time to time, but rather an active call for Christians, an imperative of the faith. The pope challenged us to create and nurture an “inclusive” hope. I am reminded as well of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis this week 57 years ago. He spoke of the proper Christian response to “unfilled hopes and shattered dreams,” something many of our siblings are undoubtedly experiencing today. King detailed how we might react to these difficulties: “I have one thing left and that is the power of the will. And I refuse to be stopped,” he said in 1959. 

The start of this week is also Laetare Sunday, a pause during this penitential liturgical season to rejoice in hope! Let us therefore take this moment to acknowledge with heavy hearts AND heartfelt gratitude those peacemakers who have recently passed. We especially remember Teacher of Peace Joe Nangle, OFM, and Ambassadors of Peace Donna Toliver Grimes and Sr. Jean Fallon, MM, and our beloved first bishop president, Bishop Tom Gumbleton, who died one year ago on April 4. May their lives of service stand as models for us during this year of hope.

>> Join us throughout Lent every Monday for a short Lenten prayer service with the Pax Christi USA national community over Zoom. Service lasts 30 minutes and includes reflection, readings, prayers of the faithful, music, and more. The fourth prayer service is this Monday, March 31 at 8:30pm ET. Click here to register.