Inspire is a little late this month…okay, it’s a lot late this month. It’s not that I’ve been procrastinating as much as I’ve been absorbing and acting on the plethora of inspiration that I’ve been exposed to in the last several weeks. Sometimes there is a lull or a slight time of unknowing what I’ll write about, but this month was the opposite. How do I choose from the things that inspired me this month, and continue to inspire me? This paragraph formed the introduction to a much longer article on some of the inspirational things I’ve been exposed to throughout June; however, I decided to share some stories from last night’s World Peace & Prayer Day Interfaith Service that I attended at the Historic St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in upstate New York and save the longer writing for another day.

World Peace and Prayer Day was started in 1994 by Avrol Looking Horse to honor the birth two years before of a white buffalo calf, which was a sign of changing times to come as well as the “coming of the mending of the Hoop of All Nations”. She was named Miracle. June 21st was chosen because it is a powerful time to pray for peace as well as being the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year. It is an offering and hope to heal all of Mother Earth’s gifts that live on the earth, including the Earth herself.

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Speak evil of no one. If you can say no good of a person, then be silent..

Let not your tongues betray you into evil,

For these are words of our Creator.

Let all strive to cultivate friendship with those who surround them.

Handsome Lake, Iroquois Prophet

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We all have sacred sites, and we are all invited to have a prayer service on one of those holy sites on the Solstice. The St. Kateri Shrine is one of those holy places in its proximity to the Mohawk River, the place where Kateri was born and baptized, and the surrounding beauty of the outdoors with tall trees and flowering plants. Kateri is also (currently) the only North American Native saint in the Catholic Church. Among her other patronages, she is the patron of the environment and ecology, and so her shrine is more than a little appropriate to hold this service for our mutual sharing of the world we live on.

I arrived at the site as the sun was drifting down, nowhere near sunset of 8:40pm of the longest day of the year – the Summer Solstice. While the gathered were waiting for the final speakers to arrive, one member of the Algonquin nation was preparing her sacred plants (or medicines) for smudging. We learned later that she had already purified the grounds. She then explained what the smudging/purification ceremony meant and invited us to be smudged. Many of us participated in this, including myself. As someone born into the Jewish faith, I find the immensity of 5000+ years of history to be awe-inspiring, and I feel the same about Native American ceremonies and rituals. As the smoke washed over me, I felt the thousands of years of history and the people before me, and that coupled with being outside in nature at the Peace Grove brought a co-mingling of Creation, Mother Nature, and the Holy Spirit (as depicted individually and by other names in all faiths).

The entire event was wonderful. Such a beautiful and peaceful place with all faiths calling in their way to the Creator and calling on our participation for peace, not only with people but also peace for our land and our environments. Our earth is holy, and we need to keep it healthy for us, our ancestors, and our descendants.

Being in Creation and hearing about creation from so many faith leaders was a blessing.

I was most moved by the words from the Mohawk Elder. While he was speaking, a whirl of wind blew all the leaves, branches, and blades of grass. Everything around our circle was in motion. While there were sporadic cool breezes as the evening went on, this longer-lasting gust was different. It felt different, it was stronger, it was imbued with Mother Earth, giving the Elder’s words an additional emphasis. It was, to me, supernatural and really imprinted his words on my heart.

Other resources in addition to the inline links are: Laudato Si by Pope Francis and the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community.