Responses

How many responses might there be to war? A century ago, my grandmother rolled bandages for wounded soldiers of the Great War. As she worked, idle conversation was forbidden, so sacred was the task. Recently, I read of Karim Wasfi, conductor of the Iraqi National Symphony. He plays his cello at the edge of bomb craters in Baghdad to engender “civility, beauty and compassion.” (NPR, June 8, 2015, via The Christian Century). Far away, in another land, nuns pray day and night for an end to all war. I was told of these nuns when I was a boy. By then, they had been praying without cease since my grandmother rolled her first bandage. As far as I know, they pray yet, and I with them.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Josh