Diana Butler Bass, author of A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story, questions, "Happy National Day of Prayer...Or Is It National Day of Fighting Over Prayer?" Writing on May 6, 2010, for The Huffington Post, Bass queries:

"The sentiment of a National Day of Prayer for communal forgiveness and social unity is nice, even noble. It is also politically expedient. Honestly, what politician can vote against prayer and hope to get re-elected? But whose prayer? Which theology? What form of devotion? ... American prayer has more often divided us rather than uniting us. If today's news headlines are any indication, that is still the case. Maybe the Quakers had it right all along: Next year we should try a "National Day of Silence" instead." 

Spiritual direction cultivates compassion and contemplative stillness. Please join Spiritual Directors International for a pause of stillness, a moment of prayer, in whatever way your heart is moved. Feel the pulse of life within you and around you. Perhaps pray the prayer of the psalmist, with this adaptation:

Be still and know that I am God. ...
Be still and know that I am. ...
Be still and know. ...
Be still. ...
Be.

Click to read the entire article, "Happy National Day of Prayer...Or Is It National Day of Fighting Over Prayer?" by Diana Butler Bass.

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