Joanne's
Personal Letter |
18 November 2024 |
Dear Family and Friends, Several years ago, I became aware of the Ravensbrück Prayer from one of my morning devotionals. I was so moved by it that I memorized it. Little did I know at that time that this prayer would become a frame of reference as a healing balm and solace to help me regain a much-needed perspective as noted in Prayers of a Pilgrim that “men and women are capable of much love amidst much hate; that men and women are capable of much mercy and forgiveness amidst an ocean of cynicism and doubt.” If you have not read her book about the unspeakable atrocities inflicted at Ravensbrück entitled, “If This Is a Woman,” by Sarah Helm, I hope you will. It is a very tough read to say the least. Ravensbrück was a Nazi concentration camp where 92,000 women and children were murdered during the Holocaust. This poignant prayer, written on a piece of wrapping paper, was miraculously preserved intact and found near the body of a dead child. Please remember the context and the circumstances of those horrific times as you read The Ravensbrück Prayer: “Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us. Remember the fruits we have borne thanks to this suffering – our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgement, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.” While our current political climate is incomparable to the sufferings and atrocities of these 92,000 women and children murdered at Ravensbrück, it is my prayer that their prayer will instill the desire for each of us to consciously examine our current attitudes and behaviors following the outcomes of the 5 November 2024 USA election(s). Hopefully, we will offer a prayer of thanks that we were spared from the fate of these women and children. They can, however, live in our hearts and minds as our wise, thoughtful and compassionate teachers who lived and died during times when human atrocities of epic proportions were inflicted upon them. Despite this, one brave soul among those 92,000 martyrs remembered the power of forgiveness as she faced her own demise square in the eye. Perhaps our individual and collective gift to her and their memory can be that we reach out in peace and unity across our land to each other as a conscious gesture contributing to their legacy to ensure that their deaths will not have been in vain. And how is this possible? Because we have read the Ravensbrück Prayer which has emboldened and humbled us to introspectively examine our lives to see what fruits we have borne from the sufferings of our own times…. sufferings which pale in comparison to theirs. For their times and for ours, I am reminded of the words from Genesis 50:20: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” And on the off chance you do not know or you have not heard—GOD IS NEVER WRONG!! Restoring kind into human kind,  Joanne McCulloch BSN RN Soli Deo Gloria "And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, And I will put a new spirit in you." -- Ezekiel 36:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” --Matthew 19:26 |
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