National Weekend of Prayer

National Weekend of Prayer to End Slavery and Trafficking

January 11-13, 2013

A coalition of faith based groups and churches organized a national weekend of prayer in Washington DC to bring an end to modern day slavery.  Our Freedom Partner, Ken Morris, the great great great grandson of Frederick Douglass was a guest speaker.  Frederick Douglass was a man of deep faith.  

John Stauffer,Professor of English, African and African American Studies at Harvard Universitywrites for the Huffington Post:

"Understanding Frederick Douglass, the great black leader and abolitionist, requires an appreciation of his religious faith. As an atheist friend of his once said: "there was one obstacle to a loving and lasting friendship -- namely, the personal Christian God."

For most of his career Douglass believed in a living God who could change the world. "All things are possible with God," he declared. "I believe in the millennium," a literal heaven on earth as described in Revelation. Love and freedom were for him the hallmarks of Christianity. His faith fueled his hope in an immediate end to slavery and racial oppression.  Douglass saw himself as a prophet heeding God's will."

USCCB Anti-Trafficking Newsletter

At Benedictine Academy, we began the weekend of prayer with the Peace Prayer of St. Francis prayed by the Pope a few weeks ago:

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me bring love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

And where there is sadness, joy... Amen."