TOLERANCE | MAY 6, 2021

On This National Day of Prayer, Let’s All Join In Together

My wife has many endearing traits, chief among them being her love of common celebration. This is especially evident on holidays.

Most recently, on Easter, she said reflectively and beamingly at the same time, “Think of all the kids who are on Easter egg hunts right now.”

While others bemoan the commonality of divisiveness in society, she prefers to recognize the commonality of the joys of life.

Woman praying — Photo by Luan Cabral/Unsplash

This immediately came to mind when I saw that Thursday, May 6, is National Day of Prayer. The day is celebrated all over the country by members of many religions from Christians to Sikhs and Muslims and Hindus to Jews. It’s a classic example of people of many faiths and beliefs all engaging in something life-affirming all at the same time.

One common positive celebration happening all over the country, all on the same day.

One group organizing Christian observance of the day has proclaimed this year’s theme as the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” A bit earlier, in 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, Paul reminds Jesus’ followers in Corinth, “You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Upon reading this, I immediately thought of how this translates to me as a Scientologist.

I see several basic truths that we can all agree on: We are all essentially spiritual in nature. We are not of the material universe. We are all capable of manifesting our innate goodness and sharing it with each other and, through broad interaction, with the whole world.

Some might quibble about the differences in our faiths and beliefs. I choose not to.

Instead, I choose to join in the prayer for ourselves, for our fellows, for our nation and for the world. I choose to pray for our essential goodness to flourish in all of us. I pray that we find common agreements among us and that we get in communication with each other and thus build mutual love and understanding.

One common positive celebration happening all over the country, all on the same day.

Will you join me?

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