Fr Ben Garren
Dear Siblings in Christ,
Some bits of rhetoric may be apocryphal, but they so summarize the work of an individual that they stay with his legacy. Such is the accusation attributed to William Wilberforce that in the English Colonies they had taken the Magnificat out of the Book of Common Prayer. This is because he could not comprehend how a nation whose church regularly prayed of God that:
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
Could also participate in the slave trade, bring indigenous people to rise up against them again and again, could not see the very duplicity of their lives. He would look out upon his fellow Lords, all of whom were baptized in the church, and say “When men are devoid of religion, I see that they are not to be relied on...” as he fought with them for over a decade to end the business of buying and selling human beings.
There is this need for us to integrate our life of prayer into our daily life. To make sure that if we do indeed pray the Magnificat, if not each evening then with some regularity, that it becomes synonymous with our actions.
We need religion, not to have a veneer of religiosity, but to have the discipline to integrate the words we pray into the life we live.
May God provide us that religion.
Pax,
—Ben