Gonzaga Magazine Fall 2020

As the parent of young children, one of the great “A Sacred Breath for Justice:
An Interfaith Vigil for Lament
paradoxes I experience is the time, frustration and will and Hope” allowed for multiple faith
embedded in getting children to sleep, matched with the
joy, peace and contemplation in watching them while traditions to call upon an inhalation
they sleep. The rhythmic oscillations of an infant’s breath of pain, solidarity and lament with an
contain multitudes. Biologically, each breath propels new exhalation of hope, growth and healing.
cell development and growth. Physically, the remnants
of star explosions carried across the universe make with reverence. This reverence, both contemplative and
the building blocks of life. Genetically, the narratives of active in the work of breathing, calls us to acknowledge the
queens, thieves, immigrants, doctors, brothers, broken- trauma we live in, but also the capacity of our collective body
hearts, poets and farmers string a web of relative matrices to learn, listen and heal – to breathe new life.
over millennia.
A month after the murder of George Floyd, our Gonzaga
A 500-year-old Ignatian exercise, The Contemplation community gathered to pray, breathe and inspire the work
of the Incarnation, envisions the perspective of the of the Spirit into action. “A Sacred Breath for Justice: An
Trinity gazing on creation, a cradled infant, with adoring Interfaith Vigil for Lament and Hope” allowed for multiple
love. In 2020, this invitation is enraptured with a global faith traditions to call upon an inhalation of pain, solidarity
pandemic, racial injustice, and the continual struggle of and lament with an exhalation of hope, growth and healing.
abuse, violence and pain within our families, churches,
institutions and communities. Being contemplatives means, like the Trinity watching us, we
stop and breathe in the world around us with its flaws and
Breath practitioners tell us that when inhalation and mortal finitude. But being contemplatives-in-action means we
exhalation are in lockstep, the body responds. In fact, the bring that experience into our bones, feel it deeply and allow
term “mindfulness” is a bit of a misnomer: Our body takes it to move us to action by building a more and just world.
over in both recalling and feeling trauma while utilizing its
amazing resilience to heal, scar and reconcile. As a University, this process means exhaling hope toward
a better local community, more just treatment of all, and a
Today, Black and Brown members of our communities vision of community where all can breathe fresh, inspired and
communicate the ways in which their breaths are loving air. The Contemplation of the Incarnation ends with
suffocated by systemic racism. The phrase, “I can’t the Trinity not sitting back in complacency but deciding to
breathe,” uttered by victims of police murder and lovingly act – to send the Son to live and work in the broken
violence like George Floyd, has become a rallying cry world for a better vision and giving his life to do so – a life
to draw attention to a community whose airways are ended violently at the hands of local authorities. But also,
being blocked. Victims of COVID-19, disproportionally a life that inspired others to see such violence and envision
indigenous communities and people of color, struggle something better, more just and more loving.
to inhale as implications of the virus impact their
embodiment. Still, many of our breaths are taken away To live and breathe in the world compels us to do no less.
when we read about and watch political, economic or
ecclesial abuse of the most vulnerable at the hands of the Mission & Ministry Resources
powerful.
» Find the vigil and recommended reading
Perhaps, like young parents inspired by the Triune God, here: gonzaga.edu/ReadersCare
we are invited to contemplate a vision of our world that
sees the beauty, complexity and fragility of our incarnation

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