Pilgrimage by Rev. Rob Gregson
“Spirit of Life and Love,
Amor sin fronteras ni paredes…love without borders or walls
We gather and we march with strength and determination to call out evil actions
while holding fast to our faith that no one is forever outside the circle of amor sin fronteras ni paredes.
Neither migrants nor the undocumented, not Jews nor the police.
Not African-Americans nor gays, lesbians or transgendered people.
We pray that our strength today builds and grows along the path we walk, the same one named by so many prophets across time and tradition: Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Mother Theresa.
In the words of contemporary Buddhist monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, written the day after the 9/11 attacks that took place just across the harbor from us here today, we call on that same prophetic tradition,
‘…So that we can hold in our arms the suffering of America as a nation, the suffering of humanity as a family–[una familia]–the suffering of the earth as a home for all of us.
We need their energy so that we can become lucid and calm, so that we will know exactly what to do and what not to do in order not to make the situation worse.
We know that…responding to hatred and violence with hatred and violence only makes the hatred grow one thousand-fold. Only with compassion can we disintegrate hatred.’
We recommit ourselves today to standing up to hatred with a thirst for la justicia: for justice informed by love.”