‘In the quiet of prayer we learn how to keep God’s love alive in the world.’ ~Author Unknown

A prayer for Guidance: O God I ask you to be with me with this day. I don’t know what lies ahead of me today but I ask you to be with me. Give me the strength and courage to get through everything as best I can. Help me to see clearly the things that matter and the things that don’t. Help me to use every gift I have, remembering that it is from you. May your presence in my life give me a generous and open heart, making me an instrument of peace and love in whatever choice I make. Help me to use these days as a time to make good positive choices in everything I do. I would like to include any person who needs a prayer, a word of encouragement, help or guidance at this time. For anyone who finds life a struggle please give them the inner strength to keep going. When I have doubts, questions, uncertainties, fears or worries, hold me in your special care. Even if today does not go good or if I feel I messed up, help me to restart and get going again. Whatever may happen all I need to know is that there is nothing that you or I can’t handle together today. Amen (Today is my gift to you)

“We’ve reached a time in human history when our global environmental crisis requires that we make permanent life-style changes. More than ever before, we need to fall back in love with the land. Silence is our meeting place.

“It is our birthright to listen, quietly and undisturbed, to the natural environment and take whatever meanings we may. Long before the noises of mankind, there were only the sounds of the natural world. Our ears evolved perfectly tuned to hear these sounds — sounds that far exceed the range of human speech or even our most ambitious musical performances: a passing breeze that indicates a weather change, the first birdsongs of spring heralding a regreening of the land and a return to growth and prosperity, an approaching storm promising relief from a drought, and the shifting tide reminding us of the celestial ballet. All of these experiences connect us back to the land and to our evolutionary past.

“One Square Inch of Silence is more than a book; it is a place in the Hoh Rain Forest, part of Olympic National Park — arguably the quietest place in the United States. But it, too, is endangered, protected only by a policy that is neither practiced by the National Park Service itself nor supported by adequate laws. My hope is that this book will trigger a quiet awakening in all those willing to become true listeners.

“Preserving natural silence is as necessary and essential as species preservation, habitat restoration, toxic waste cleanup, and carbon dioxide reduction, to name but a few of the immediate challenges that confront us in this still young century. The good news is that rescuing silence can come much more easily than tackling these other problems. A single law would signal a huge and immediate improvement. That law would prohibit all aircraft from flying over our most pristine national parks.

“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything. It lives here, profoundly, at One Square Inch in the Hoh Rain Forest. It is the presence of time, undisturbed. It can be felt within the chest. Silence nurtures our nature, our human nature, and lets us know who we are. Left with a more receptive mind and a more attuned ear, we become better listeners not only to nature but to each other. Silence can be carried like embers from a fire. Silence can be found, and silence can find you. Silence can be lost and also recovered. But silence cannot be imagined, although most people think so. To experience the soul-swelling wonder of silence, you must hear it.”

And so we pray this news.

God says I was there with you
in the howling of the tornado
and the shaking of your house,
and now I will be there with you
wherever you go next.

God says I was there with you
when you lost your loved one
in the whirling tornado,
and now I will be there with you
as you mourn his or her loss.

God says I was there with you
when you surveyed the destruction
of all your cherished possessions,
and now I will be there with you
as you purchase new things
and start all over again.

God says I was there with you
when you reached out for your dog
but could not hold him close to you
as the winds intensified,
and now I will be there with you
as you keep him close inside your heart.

God says I was there with you
when you accepted the help of others,
and now I will be there with you
as that circle of love expands
and brings you fresh hope.

God says I was there with you
when all seemed lost forever,
and now I will be with you
as you struggle to survive
and reclaim your life once again.
So be it.

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

God, today we remember those who are still unemployed and those who have recently lost jobs. May they endure during this time of uncertainty, knowing that each day remains a greater gift than the one before. Amen (sojourners)

“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with an anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you can reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

 On the first day of December, people around the world pause to remember World AIDS Day.  Christians remember all who live with HIV and AIDS, and all who have died, at the same time we begin the season of Advent.  We search for a healer and a hope-giver as we prepare for the coming of the Redeemer.  One of the traditional prophetic readings for the season says:

 While gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,
[God’s]all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,
into the midst of the land that was doomed.  [Wisdom 18:14-15, NRSV]

 The magnificent contrasts of this ancient vision – silence pierced by the Word, doom cast out by new life – seem a fitting frame for reflecting on the challenges and opportunities confronting us on World AIDS Day 2010.

 The world lives in painful silence and gathering doom.  More than 30 million people around the world are living with HIV, and at least 2.5 million persons will be infected in the coming year. Developing countries experience HIV and AIDS as major links in the chain of poverty and instability binding so much of God’s creation.  In the United States HIV rates are also rising among the poor.  An increased need for American funding of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment has been met with silence and retreat, as other pressing challenges vie for national and global attention.  

And yet silence and doom do not have the last word.  The UNAIDS report released last week notes that the rate of new HIV infections has either stabilized or been reduced significantly in 56 nations.  New infections have fallen 20% in the past decade, and AIDS deaths have fallen 20% in the past five years.  The director of UNAIDS urges the world to break “the trajectory of the AIDS epidemic with bold actions and smart choices.”  The Centers for Disease Control identify HIV/AIDS as one of six diseases which can be overcome.  Research results released last week show promising results in clinical trials of a new prophylactic drug, designed to prevent HIV infection in at-risk communities.  This success comes in the wake of recently publicized advances in identifying HIV ‘controller genes,’ which may lead to advances in vaccines or treatment.

This contrast confronts us on World AIDS Day:  great progress and even greater hope despite public discourse and political leadership that rarely prioritizes an end to this deadly and stigmatizing disease.  What can Christians do to ensure the victory of hope and new life in the face of silence and death?

The first priority:  continue to advocate forcefully for government investment in the fight against AIDS both here and abroad.  The U.S. government’s has, in the past two years, decreased our nation’s promised investment in HIV/AIDS abroad.  This reduction had included both funding for particular countries, and our investment in the multinational Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote compellingly of President Obama’s unfulfilled commitments in a New York Times op-ed this past summer.  As the President prepares his budget for the coming fiscal year, I urge Episcopalians to challenge him and the new Congress to keep America’s promises to the world.  Joining the Episcopal Public Policy Network will connect your voice to those of other Episcopalians working in this and other areas of social justice.

The second priority:  Episcopalians must continue to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS within our own communities.  This Church still has AIDS, and urgent challenges remain.  Stigma continues to be a major issue in the United States and around the world.  Encouraging routine testing is essential, particularly among adults over age 50.  I commend to all Episcopalians the work of the National Episcopal AIDS Coalition, which has done much to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and avenues of healing within our own communities.

Finally, I urge your prayers.  As we prepare to mark the thirtieth year of the world’s awareness of HIV and AIDS in 2011, pray for all who have died from this terrible disease.  Pray for those living now with HIV and AIDS.  And pray for a future without AIDS.  

These past weeks have brought us new signs that such a future is indeed possible.   Pray that we will use our collective resources, imagination, and will to make a world without AIDS a reality.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church