Threshold Spring/Summer 2010

"A Time for Peace"
- Ecclesiastes 3:8

by Bridget Dickason, OSB

The annual Guilfoil Justice Day was held February 11, 2010 at Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Kansas City, Mo. The theme this year was “Time of Prayer for Peace and Non-Violence.” The Guilfoil Justice Day is held annually in memory of Sister Mary Alice Guilfoil, OSB, director of the Peace and Justice Office in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph for many years until her death in 1998.

The evening of prayer started with a holy hour led by Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese. Following the holy hour was an ecumenical prayer service which included Taize chant, a Litany of Peace, readings from Scripture and from Mahatma Gandhi, a ritual laying on of hands on the area of the globe participants wanted to pray for specifically, and a pledge of non-violence for those who wished to make one.

Two recipients of the Guilfoil Scholarship, a scholarship given to young people wanting to serve on a mission trip to a Third World country, presented a summary of their experience to those gathered in prayer. They expressed their gratitude for what they had learned and shared displays of photos and other items from their trip at the reception following the prayer service.

Below: Sister Susan Barber, at piano, leads Guardian Angels parish musicians Margaret Lima and Judy Dugan, with Sisters Elizabeth Carrillo, Judith Sutera and Suzanne Fitzmaurice, at the Gulfoil Day prayer service.