After Mass in Roseville, MI., this morning, I did the unusual.
A bus ride south on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit, earlier today, recalled to me leaders of this great City, and those who challenged residents to be better beyond bitter, angry, divisive, and more. Wonderful and conversant riders freely engaged with me.
This was a treat in humanity with high regard and respect for each person.
So much inhumanity to men and women and the most vulnerable among our youth must stop.
That DNA resides in the baby in the womb at birth cries out for deeper respect for all of life in and outside the womb. The trail we're on only paves dead end for life. Of course, extreme situations of back alley abortions were ended in large part with the like of people wanting to protect mothers from efforts to put away the child within with a coat hangar or worse. Hospitals replaced alleys.
Forty-five years ago on this day, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed.
His call for nonviolent resistance for change for the common good merits remembering.
Who leads today in the battle to save the soul of America?
Who?
King's demise, among other greats, also invites people to bridge the gap and the racial divide.
Suburban neighbors can be more outgoing in welcoming new neighbors.
Anonymity only provides for insecure streets and subdivision where rampant burglary thrives.
A stop at the On the Rise Capuchin Bakery at Gratiot and McClellan was another treat. Former inmates bake breads of all sorts, loaf cakes, and more. I must admit they have me as a regular now having purchased a round loaf of rye bread and a banana nut loaf today.
Next, back on the bus, I was off to the Historic Trinity Lutheran Church where the Rev. Dr. Eberhard is pastor in this downtown Detroit edifice. On Good Friday, I dropped in also. No one was there so I left a note asking the pastor to call me to invite him to serve on an interfaith panel of rabbis, imams and pastors. They'll each spend a few minutes telling participant, Monday, April 29th, at 11:45 am, at Focus:HOPE how they personally pray.
How prayer prompts prophetic action, and more, like the birth of the distinguished, nationally-recognized social services and job retraining, will be the theme with a tour of the sprawling civil rights organization founded by the late and charismatic Father William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis in the 60s.
Civil unrest and riots urged these leaders to stand in the gap and bridge the divide with food, jobs, and senior assistance, among others programs and services.
A visit to the Tree of Life Baptist Church near Nativity Catholic Church had me engaged with Rev. Nathan Proche on a discussion about wrestling with death, and, so much more. He was invited to the event at Focus:HOPE and readily noted it in his calendar.
Some of his parishioners were holding a prayer and Bible study session while we joined them in the doorway from the pastor's office unwilling to be invasive of their sacred connection with the Creator.
Back at Sacred Heart Church in Roseville, MI., a couple of calls to William Easton at the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, and a call to Jerome Singer at Nativity in Detroit rounded out the panel of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, among participants of other faith traditions.
It was time to head home.
A long and tiring day was met with a deep joy of fruitful ministry.
Easter season.
It's only day four into this 50-day season of rejoicing right up into Pentecost.
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