In Tattoos on the Heart, Rev. Boyle talks a lot about kinship. How does he define kinship? In a 2015 speech to the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, he described it this way:
“Kinship is ‘being one.’ It means there is no ‘us’ and ‘them,’ there is only ‘us.’ Without kinship there is no peace, without kinship there is no justice.”
- Can you think of a time when you found yourself in kinship with another person?
- After reading several chapters of the book, are you finding a stronger sense of the “us?”
- Rev. Boyle challenges readers to “stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.” Have there ever been times in your life when you have judged others in spite of their misfortunes?
Spiritual Reflection:
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
~Saint Teresa of Calcutta
Intercessory Prayer for the Marginalized
For those deprived of their human needs
and their human rights,
that they may be given the dignity
which God confers on all his people;
We pray to the Lord
For all who are forgotten or thrown away,
and especially for the poor, the sick and the aged,
that God might change our hearts
and move us to love them as the image of Christ
We pray to the Lord
For all who are lonely or afraid,
for teenagers on the street,
old people in nursing homes,
prisoners with no one to visit them,
and all whom the world has forgotten:
that Christ might lead us to them;
We pray to the Lord
For all who are forgotten or cast off,
that we might value each human life,
as a priceless gift from God;
We pray to the Lord
Amen.
~United States Conference of Catholic Bishops