Reflection
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. the mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln
Prayer
May we be one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.
Action
How can we respond to the call for unity? What are the “better angels of our nature”? What are some of the ways we can act on them?
Suggested Reading
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35
To understand one another, and to grow in charity and truth, we need to pause, to accept and listen to one another. In this way we already begin to experience unity. Unity grows along the way, it never stands still. Unity happens when we walk together.
Pope Francis
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln.
We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this, if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.
Mattie Stepanek
Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.
Mahatma Gandhi
No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.
Theodore Bikel
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The good in this world far outweighs the evil. Our common humanity transcends our differences, and our most effective response to terror is compassion, it’s unity, and it’s love.
Loretta Lynch
Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.
Alexander The Great