These are three prayer songs for immigrants around the world, and, especially for those trying to find refuge in our nation.
My sister, Mary Ruth, while she was still living, started to investigate some of our family history. She found the immigrant records of my paternal grandfather, Andrew Wojnar who immigrated by himself as a boy of 16 years (he tried stowing away a year earlier) from Poland, and my maternal grandfather, Oscar Jernstrom, who immigrated as a teenager from Sweden. My paternal grandmother, Katherine, immigrated as a three year old child from Poland. My maternal grandmother, Mary Marron, immigrated with her family, probably in one of the “coffin ships” from Ireland, fleeing the religious persecution of the English, the abject poverty of Ireland and the potato famine. All my grandparents were fleeing from poverty with the hope of building new lives in a new country. It is absolutely true that with the exception of Native Americans and Latinos, all the rest of us are “anchor babies”, children of immigrants fleeing to a new nation trying to build new lives.
In January 2016, I witnessed the plight of the many Syrian refugees dying trying to flee the violence of Syria, many of them drowning in their attempt. Many Greek fisherman spent more time saving these immigrants and helping them to new life, then they spent fishing. This was an heroic act of Christian love, whether these fishermen were Christian or not! Pope Francis 1 was moved by the great love that was bestowed upon the immigrants and sponsored several families, all of them Muslim.
At the same time, in contrast, we began to encounter in the United States a reversal of our nation’s long policy of welcoming immigration, the Statue of Liberty our symbol of this generosity. Instead a new policy based on religious prejudice and racial prejudice is preventing immigrants, like my grandparents, who fled from poverty and tyranny, from coming and settling with us to build new lives. And, now, instead of helping immigrants, we are separating immigrant children, some still breast feeding, from their parents, and imprisoning them in cages like animals along our southern border. The SIN of this policy is so appalling, and in direct opposition on the principles upon which our nation was created by our Founding Fathers. The cruelty and heartlessness of those racists who have perpetrated these policies is explicit.
As you listen to this music, reflect on these questions. Am I person who welcomes those who are new to my community, or do I look upon them as pariahs and people to be feared? Do I see the face of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in the men, women, and children fleeing the violence of Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia? How do I personally welcome the strangers in my life?
This first song, was composed as a prayer for all immigrants and refugees world wide in January of 2017. It is part of a collection of songs called “The Lamentation Psalm Offerings”. The song is based on these two scriptural passages.
“Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.” (Lamentations 1:3)
“Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’” (Matthew 2:12-15)
The second and third prayer songs for immigrants come from my collection Psalm Offerings Opus 10, composed in the summer of 2018.
The second prayer song was composed for the Latino mothers who have had their babies, some still nursing at the breast, viciously ripped from their arms by agents of our government, and then imprisoned for the crime of wanting a new and safe life for their children. The scriptural passage is from the prophet Jeremiah.
“Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: they shall come back from the land of the enemy; there is hope for your future, says the Lord: your children shall come back to their own country.” (Jeremiah 31:15-17)
The third prayer song was composed for the immigrant children who were ripped from the arms of their parents by agents of our government and imprisoned in cages in prisons on our borders. The songs is based on two scriptural passages from the book of Exodus and from the prophet Isaiah.
“Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. ¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” (Exodus 1:8-16, NRSV)
“Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:12-17, NRSV)
