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Remembering the Jesuit Martyrs
by John Dear SJ on Nov. 10, 2009
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionTwenty years ago, on November 16, 1989, I was studying theology at the Jesuit community in Berkeley, Calif., when my friend Steve Kelly knocked on the door and asked if I had heard the news. I hadn’t. He broke down telling me of the brutal deaths early that morning of six Jesuit priests at the University of Central America, the Jesuit university in San Salvador. I had known those Jesuits from my time in El Salvador in 1985, when I lived and worked in a refugee camp. I was shocked and grief-stricken.
Their deaths set in motion a series of actions that changed my life. Steve and I decided then and there to do something. We gathered friends, drove into San Francisco and held vigil at the Salvadoran Consulate. That night, we facilitated a large public meeting about the murders and our response. Over the weekend, we held prayer services and organizing meetings, and on Monday morning, nearly 2,000 of us gathered outside the U.S. Federal Building in San Francisco to demand an end to U.S. military aid to El Salvador. That day, 120 of us, including 18 Jesuits, were arrested and jailed for kneeling down and blocking the building’s entrance. It was the largest Jesuit protest in U.S. history.
Soon we were organizing similar demonstrations at the nearby Concord Naval Weapons Station and joining the protests at the Federal Building in Los Angeles. Steve and I and a group of priests and Salvadoran women embarked on a 21 day fast for an end to U.S. military aid to El Salvador. Martin Sheen and I flew to D.C. to sit in at the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building. I helped organize a rally in front of San Francisco’s City Hall with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Kris Kristofferson that brought out 12,000 people. We worked tirelessly for an end to U.S. military aid, and I think our efforts made a difference. But the deaths of the Jesuit martyrs touched us permanently.
Twenty years later, I call them to mind and heart:
Segundo Montes. Head of the University of Central America sociology department, director of the new human rights institute, superior of the Jesuit community, Segundo worked every weekend with the poor in Quezaltepeque. He had a big red beard, and people called him “Zeus.” “I consider it a duty to work for human rights,” he once said. “It is the duty of every human being who has the sensibility and sensitivity to the suffering of people.”
Ignacio Martin Baro. Vice president of the University of Central America, social psychologist, expert in the field of public opinion in El Salvador, he worked every weekend in the poor parish of Jayaque
Juan Ramon Moreno. Assistant director of the pastoral institute at the University of Central America, secretary of the Jesuit province, teacher of novices, he founded a Jesuit newsletter and set up a state of the art library in the new Romero Center which the death squads completely destroyed after killing the Jesuits. “The vocation of the church and of the followers of Jesus,” he wrote “is to be the innermost recess of Christ’s compassion.”
Amando Lopez. Former head of the San Salvador seminary and of the Jesuit University in Managua, Nicaragua, he worked every weekend among the poor in Soyapango. I remember having lunch with him once and asking him about his friend, Jean Donovan, killed in 1980.
Joaquin Lopez y Lopez. The oldest, he had recently been diagnosed with cancer. One of the founders of the University of Central America, he also founded “Fe Y Alegria,” a network of 13 schools that served eight thousand impoverished Salvadoran children, as well as two clinics which served 50,000.
Elba and Celina Ramos. Elba was the cook of the Jesuit house of studies down the road. That night, she brought her 16 year old daughter Celina to the University of Central America thinking they would be safer there on campus during the rebel offensive. They had been sleeping in a parlor room next to the Jesuit house when the death squads stormed the community. A few weeks earlier, Celina told a classmate that she hated violence so much that she would never again even kill an insect.
Ignacio Ellacuria. The university president, a world renown theologian and philosopher, and well known public figure in El Salvador, he helped write Archbishop Romero’s pastoral letters, envisioned a new type of Jesuit university committed to social justice, and in 1985, held a nationally televised open forum at the university where he methodically outlined, exposed and denounced the right wing government and its death squads.
Ellacuria was fearless and outspoken, a true prophet of justice and peace. He disturbed the so-called peace of the U.S.-backed regime, so the warmakers killed him. And they took no prisoners.
In other words, there was a reason they were assassinated. Their deaths were not an accident. The government knew what it was doing. Many think the Salvadoran president approved the assassinations a few hours earlier. He was using the same logic of violent deterrence that killed every martyr from Jesus to Dorothy Stang. But what these governments never understand is that nonviolent martyrs for justice and peace rise up in the people, pushing us to take similar risks for justice and peace, urging us to disturb the false peace, forcing us to speak out.
When our group of Jesuit scholastics met Ellacuria in 1985, he told us: “The purpose of the Jesuit university in El Salvador is promote the reign of God. But you can’t be for the reign of God unless you are also publicly actively against the anti-reign.” You are not truly for peace and justice unless you are also speaking out publicly and working actively to end war and injustice. That night, during a dinner for us, the university Jesuits showed us the bullet holes from the many attacks and bombing raids they had suffered over the years.
Twenty years later, El Salvador’s war has subsided but its poverty and crime have increased. We’ve suffered through two wars on Iraq, September 11th, Afghanistan, Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and now Obama, and watched the steady increase of extreme poverty, global starvation, global warming and global violence. What can we learn from the Jesuit martyrs that will help us today? Recently, I spoke during a week-long commemoration at St. Louis University and offered a few possible lessons.
First, the Jesuit martyrs were concerned about the world as it really is, what they called “Reality,” and the world they saw is the same world today--a culture of violence, war and empire. Today, the notorious El Salvador of war, poverty and unimaginable violence has become the world. The whole world has become El Salvador! Like the martyrs, we need to talk about it, name it and do what we can to stop global poverty, wars and violence. If we do, we might also reach the heights of El Salvador’s spectacular saints, prophets, theologians and martyrs.
Second, the martyrs denounced war, poverty and violence as “social sin.” They knew these tragedies were unjust, immoral and impractical, but they went further and named systemic injustice as a violation of God’s will, as blasphemy and idolatry. We are all guilty of mortal sin by allowing billions to suffer under poverty, war and violence, they taught, and true repentance means working to eradicate these injustices.
Third, the martyrs call us to take sides--to side with the world’s poor and margainalized, to live in solidarity with them as best we can. They challenge us to befriend the poor, serve the poor, learn from the poor, liberate the poor, defend the poor, struggle with and for the poor, and ideally practice a downward mobility that leads us to become one with the poor. That was the journey of Jesus and the Jesuit martyrs; it’s our journey too.
Fourth, the martyrs teach us to move from charity to justice. Yes, we have to serve specific suffering people, as each of them did, but we also have to ask why the poor are suffering and impoverished. As we do, we join the struggle for social and economic justice. The martyrs teach us to connect the dots around the world and learn that the struggle is one.
Fifth, the martyrs call us to make a preferential option for peace and nonviolence. They urge us to pursue global disarmament for a global redistribution of wealth, and thus to herald a new world of nonviolence. They want us to make sure that no one ever takes up the gun again. Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemani, their blood, spilled in the garden in front of their house, cries out: “Put down the sword!” It says: the age of the death squads is coming to an end. The martyrs push us to resist and end the work of the ultimate death squads--in the Pentagon, Los Alamos, Livermore Labs, the SAC base, Creech AFB, Fort Hood, Congress and the White House.
Sixth, the martyrs call us to follow the nonviolent Jesus “as he carries his cross” in pursuit of God’s reign of justice and peace. They spoke about the cross, wrote about the cross, and took up the cross as nonviolent resistance to war and systemic injustice. They knew from the deaths of their friends, including Rutilio Grande, Archbishop Romero, and Ita Ford, that the only way to radical social change is through the paschal mystery. Today, few speak about the cross. This anniversary reminds us that every Christian is summoned to take up the cross of nonviolent resistance to global injustice.
Seventh, the Jesuit martyrs demonstrate how every Catholic university, college, high school, retreat center, and parish could become a center for justice and peace. The University of Central America was the model Jesuit university. There was no other place like it in the hemisphere. I was amazed, as they toured us around in 1985, at their ambitious attempt to change national opinion and “reality.” It was a training camp in peace and justice. Every course, paper, and department was aimed at the nonviolent transformation of El Salvador. Imagine if every Jesuit, Catholic, and Christian university today were aimed at the disarmament and transformation of the United States; if these universities refused to take a penny from the Pentagon, banned ROTC, taught nonviolence, required every student to labor on behalf of the poor, and became a school of justice and peace! Not only would we begin to change our society; we would start to match the example set by the martyrs.
Eighth, Ellacuria and the Jesuit martyrs call us to become prophets of justice and peace. They were not afraid to speak publicly and became fierce communicators. The right wing accused of them being political, but they understood their public stand for justice and peace as a requirement of the Gospel. They expected every Christian to speak out. They would not tolerate our silence, our fear, our apathy, or our false humility (which lets us off the hook). I’m convinced that Ellacuria and the other martyrs would want us to denounce our government’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our massive military budget, our funding of the occupation of the Palestinians, our failure to protect the environment, our nuclear arsenal, and our refusal to eradicate global starvation. They would want us to be the voice of the voiceless, to communicate with our people as best we can so that this militarism ends and those resources are spent instead on food, homes, healthcare, education, employment and dignity for the world’s poor.
Ninth, the Jesuit martyrs remind us that life is short. Their blood calls us to wake up, practice a mature Christianity, use our talents wisely, and spend our days working on behalf of the world’s poor. Their deaths warn us not to waste the precious time we have been given. They cry out: Seek God! Seek God’s reign! Love one another! Serve the least, hunger and thirst for justice, and make peace while there is still time.
Tenth, Ellacuria and the Jesuit martyrs invite us to be people of true hope. They avoided the cheap hope so common in our comfortable, apathetic culture. Instead, the martyrs point us to the hope of Jesus on the cross, the hope that comes close to despair, the hope that pursues justice and peace even though it seems so futile. The martyrs teach us to place our hope in God, and so, to know that the outcome, the results of our work, are in God’s hands. As we learn this hard lesson, we find the strength to give our lives too for a new world without war, poverty, nuclear weapons and global warming, whether or not we live to see the fruit of our work. We know it is God’s work, and so we go forward in hope, even joy, because we know now that our lives have joined the cause of God.
“We are people of the Gospel, a gospel that proclaims the reign of God, and that calls us to try to transform this earth into as close a likeness of that reign as possible,” Ellacuria wrote.
As we remember Ellacuria and the Jesuit martyrs, let’s pledge to carry on their work, follow their Gospel example, share their prophetic mission, and practice their fearless faith and bold hope. As we do, we too will be blessed.
***
This week, John’s new book, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings, appears from Orbis Books. With his other recent books, A Persistent Peace and Put Down the Sword, along with Patricia Normile’s John Dear On Peace, it is available from www.amazon.com. For information, or to schedule a speaking event, visit: www.johndear.org.
I remember waking up to that
I remember waking up to that news half way across the world. I was in my 30th year and liberation theology had sustained me throughout my twenties and the prophets of hope that these men were beckoned me to learn more. We said prayers, went to Mass, studied their witness and introduced people to their work. We added their names to the litany of martyrs that we had grown to know about in Central America, knowing that they would be joined by more names. I also went to the teachings of Fr Tissa Balasuryia who explains the the Eucharist as a most radical act: When Jesus said "This is my flesh" (Aramaic), he means his whole person, and then he announced that he would be handed over - by implication to the authorities. In taking the cup, His disciples are to remember this handing-over of his lifeblood at execution. By his words and actions, Jesus declared that God was at work IN the betrayal AND execution ... and the consquence is liberation. When I heard of the news of the Jesuits killed in El Salvador I understood it even deeper again. Each time I experience Eucharist and find myself breaking bread and drinking wine I receive the radical grace to continue in the "Jesus Project" (as Brazilian priest Fr Jose Marins and Sr Teolide Trevisan ICM, taught us in Adelaide more than 20 years ago). There can be no fuller expression of Eucharist than those who give their flesh and blood as these men did twenty years ago.
I am a little stunned to
I am a little stunned to recall the tragedy. I am especially grieved to know your personal relationship with these good and courageous people.
Thank you for keeping us on a mission of peace and for helping us all realize the violent reality that still plagues so many innocent people. Often it is with US military equipment that so many innocent people are massacred.
I wish our bishops were
I wish our bishops were paying attention. Their focus is ending abortion, not poverty, hunger and war.
I have often thought the very
I have often thought the very same. It is "easy" to say you are against abortion. More difficult, is standing up for truth, and justice. You have to contact your congressmen and women, vote, vote again for those who will truly act for "we, the people".
We need to "act with justice for the world" as we sing at church. Our soldiers are fighting and losing their lives in a war that is unwinable. Americans are going to bed hungry, living in the streets, and we continue to spend our grandchildren's money on tanks, armour, bombs and bullets, and our children's lives in a war we cannot win.
How have we let our country get this bad? The rich are running everything......taking our money, then taking it again. Leagally?! How can we take our country back?
Why don't the bishops stand up to the Congress, our President, CEO's and Bankers? What do they have to lose? Maybe congress will pass a law to tax churches?
I'll tell you how to make the
I'll tell you how to make the country better: vote Republican. The Democrat Party is going to ruin America with its socialist policies.
As an independent, I have a
As an independent, I have a few questions. Which party was in control these last eight years? Which party led us into a big deficit? Which party led us into war with a lie? Which party supports Wall St. rather than Main St.? I could go on, and you want me to vote republican?
Thank you, John, for this
Thank you, John, for this beautiful tribute. I knew Ellacuria, and received the human rights reports from Segundo Montes. Steve Kelly was a novice working in my office of the Archbishop Romero Relief Fund in Los Angeles. The Jesuits remind us of the price exacted for speaking truth to power. Their courage and the courage of so many others are examples of grace to the rest of us. Thank you for your commitment. The martyrs of El Salvador, Presente!
I am glad that you mentioned
I am glad that you mentioned Julia and Celina Ramos by name as well, since too often they are just labeled as "anonymous women" or "the others killed"...
The jesuit martyrs leave a
The jesuit martyrs leave a legacy that we must never forget . We celebrate their lives in Ballymun co. Dublin, Ireland with joy and hope that their committment to justice and their preferential option for the marginalised will help us to bring about the reign of God's kingdom of justice here on earth.
God bless the Jesuits. In my
God bless the Jesuits. In my mind no group of men have given greater witness to the Gospel through their missionary, educational and spiritual insights than the Jesuits from the beginning of their foundation to the present. My experience with them was a life changing thirty day retreat inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. May Our Lord increase their number in these days with such large diminishment across all religious orders, congregations etc. Let us pray for all religious but on this day of remembrance of the Jesuit martyrs let us ask that such remarkable charisms let loose by the Jesuits for the good of the People of God be resurrected and flower again.
It is an interesting pattern
It is an interesting pattern that you have to your writing. There is a kind of predictable change in style from week to week. I can only say that when you are most creative and open – your writing is most beautiful as are you.
I don’t like the word sin only because it scares people and is so totally judgmental. I guess that is often a Catholic kind of thing. The Catholic world as I have known it has been one of control through fear rather than of acceptance and unconditional love. We all make mistakes along the way as we go through this learning experience called life.
I do remember when I also thought that I could change the world. But, then I realized that I could only change myself. At times I find that more difficult than trying to change the world, but at least it is possible. As strongly as you believe that all of these evils and injustices need to be corrected and changed – I believe there is a reason and purpose for it all. It seems that it is even necessary for some reason. I don’t really question it but am sure that it will make more sense in time.
It takes a lot of freedom to be creative (freedom is – of course – a state of mind). You have obviously been programmed and conditioned to think as a priest (although you do have that bit of rebel going on). You may have surrendered a good amount of your creativity when you became a Jesuit priest. And you must know there is something to be said for creativity. As I remember, God has been given credit for a bit of it. But any organization can drain that from you.
There will be peace, but not the way many people visualize it.
You may judge me and these words in anyway that you want. It makes no difference. My heart tells me that you will know the truth when you hear it. From the depths of my heart, I wish you love.
The Catholic Church has
The Catholic Church has instigated and promoted and financed more wars and political insurrections in the past 1000 years than can be counted. When you take on the mantel of a Catholic Priest, you take on the mantel of a soldier. Soldiers die. I do not weep for anyone who knowingly goes into battle.
These innocents did not
These innocents did not deserve to be slaughtered and especially by the corrupt government supported by Ronald Reagan.
I worked as a translator for
I worked as a translator for Ignacio Martin Baro when he spoke at the Jesuit house of studies in Berkeley when you studied there. I rejoiced when I learned of the demonstrations that you organized. I´m so glad that you knew these great Central American Jesuits, Spanish missionaries, generous to the end. Such great examples for all of us. They knew years before their deaths that they would be murdered, but continued their work in spite of it. Ellacuria, a brilliant philosopher, returned to El Salvador from Spain where he spent a part of each year studying and working on important philosophical projects, knowing that death awaited him. God bless them and the great example they have given to us. May we find the courage to follow them.
There were upwards of 100
There were upwards of 100 Jesuit martyrs in the 20th century. God bless the 7 mentioned above, but what about the other 93? They need to be called to "mind and heart" too.
Fr. John, the day all these
Fr. John, the day all these historically things happened I was following it very closely, on the radio, in Zapopan, a few miles from the ITESO campus. It is also necessary to remember the members of the community that where not there - Fr. Segundo Galileo. Everytime I cross the quad at the ITESO and read all of their names, I remember. It was on there that I met up with Mons. Samuel Ruiz - the same message, the same Church. I remember how Archbishop J. R. Quinn, had a nervous break-down from following these events.
It is how life to follow Christ. That is what it is all about!
To this day, I shall never
To this day, I shall never forget the sound of the machine guns punctuating the announcements of this massacre on Spanish TV when I was lecturing in Salamanca in 1989. The tear-laden liturgy of remembrance at La Clericia, the emotional homily beginning with the words, "Querido Ignacio...." by the Rector, who had sat in meetings with Padre Ellacuria just days before, and the white sheet hanging over the bannister of the steps leading to the church proclaiming in large red letters: ELLACURIA, SU SANGRE ES LIMPIA! (Ellacuria, your blood is pure!) But mostly, I remember the machine guns...
As a child growing up in a
As a child growing up in a Jesuit parish in Los Angeles, I remember feeling a sense of sorrow and determination combined. The deaths of the Jesuits in El Salvador had struck a deep wound in the California Province that trickled onto the parishioners.
It was though this experience that I learned the meaning of solidarity. A sense of justice and communion with others regardless of losing one's own life. My great uncle- Fr. Rutilio Grande, SJ, did the same.
I was a novice when these six
I was a novice when these six men and two women gave their lives in the service of the Gospel. Their witness inspired me then. Their witness inspires me still. Peace and all good!
I can't believe it has been
I can't believe it has been 20 years! I remember when the word came, we were gathered in the Chancery atrium listening to the ordinary name a dozen or so priests who had been given the title, "Minsignor". I remember thinking to myself, "Which one of these guys would be "worth killing" because of their steadfast faith. It seemed they were honored, in the main, because they had persevered for 25 years or more and/or had been great at raising money.
Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador, Pray for us!
I say thank you every day
I say thank you every day that there are courageous people who put their lives on the line for the Lord. They are the true inspirations to the rest of us to try to live the gospel of peace.
I say thank you every day
I say thank you every day that there are courageous people who put their lives on the line for the Lord. They are the true inspirations to the rest of us to try to live the gospel of peace.
I think Harriet Ann Burr has
I think Harriet Ann Burr has confused her theologians. Segundo Galilea is a Chilean and was not a member of the Jesuit community at the UCA. Perhaps she is referring to Jon Sobrino -- who was and is a member of the Jesuit community at the UCA. He was in Asia when the murders occurred.
thanks Fr John for this
thanks Fr John for this beautiful memory of committed people. Yes, they have been true to the Gospel call, and have paid the price of authentic loving.
US militarism continues to be a an agent of human rights violation all over. Let's press on to say NO to all US led wars including my country the Philippines. Put your billions of dollars for armaments to feed the hungry made poor by your weapons!
The mail brought today, upon
The mail brought today, upon this Jesuit day, the brand new collection of Essential Writings of the work of the Reverend Father Daniel Berrigan SJ, edited by the Reverend Father John Dear SJ for the Roman Catholic publishing house Orbis Books within its Modern Spiritual Masters Series.
You might ask, well, gee, I already have Testimony: The Word Made Fresh, a collection of writings from the Reverend Father Daniel Berrigan SJ gathered by this same prolific writer for Peace and Nonviolence, and activist for Peace, with Nonviolence, the Reverend Father and brother Jesuit John Dear, long friend of Father Berrigan, published by the same great Roman Catholic publishing house Orbis Books, and you might ask, do I really need to get this one, too?
This book answers, well, yes, you really do. I have both, but I need all the help I can get.
This collection includes much previously unedited and unpublished material for the first time, as instructive and strengthening and edifying for us now as then. It is published within the Orbis Modern Spiritual Masters Series, which includes Pope John XXIII: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters), St. Therese of Lisieux: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series), and several other saints, as well Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series) edited and introduced by this same editor, the Reverend Father John Dear SJ.
This collection therefore gathers for the first time in print several essential writings from Father Berrigan. The editor notes on page 35: "For these essential writings, I gathered some of Daniel Berrigan's classic texts from bestsellers like No Bars to Manhood: A Powerful, Personal Statement on Radical Confrontation with Contemporary Society (Daniel Berrigan Reprint) and To Dwell in Peace: An Autobiography (Daniel Berrigan Reprint) as well as The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and The Dark Night of Resistance (Daniel Berrigan Reprint), sprinkled his poems throughout, and concluded with excerpts from his several recent scripture commentaries, the major work of his last twenty years. Several selections are published here for the first time, such as his homily at the memorial Mass for Roger LaPorte, remarks that led to his exile in Latin America (p. 35)."
This editor's summation perhaps adequately if humbly presents the contents of this book, while leaving out many specifics.
The book opens with an excellent timeline of the long and still productive life of the Rev. Fr. Dan Berrigan up to the present moment, with the recent publication of No Gods but One: Deuteronomy, the latest of his several exegetical works on the Old Testament prophets and books. I have received that book through amazon, and have put off reviewing it, as I have been reading it slowly, carefully, as lectio divina, as hermeneutic for our age of warfare and of hunger. Although mentioned in the time line, I cannot find an excerpt from it here in this Essential collection, although I am discovering it gratefully some of the clearest and most direct and essential writing from Father Berrigan, and I highly recommend beginning your reading of this great priest and peacemaker (the essential function of every priest) with it.
Father Dear's Introduction, entitled simply "Daniel Berrigan - Poet, Prophet and Peacemaker," is in ipse an excellent analytical biography of this modern spiritual master and voice of peacemaking.
There is perhaps no one better prepared to create this collection of Essential Writings than Father John Dear SJ. He has mastered the format and its mission through his earlier offerings in this Modern Spiritual Masters Series. He has none and worked intimately with the Berrigans for decades, and has prayed as brother Jesuit with the Reverend Father Daniel Berrigan repeatedly, even constantly. Reading his autobiography, A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World, we discover how very much Father Berrigan inspired and motivated Father Dear in hearing and fulfilling his priestly vocation to peacemaking and crying prophetically for justice. We may read with confidence therefore this collection, knowing we receive here the essential, while whetting the spiritual appetite to read much more of both. Such a pursuit is well rewarded.
We may also, for example, read eagerly and repeatedly the exegetical works of Father Berrigan, such as Jeremiah, Job: And Death No Dominion, Isaiah: Spirit of Courage, Gift of Tears, and especially for these times of insane war, The Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power.
Read this book. It is Essential.
You're all full of it: just
You're all full of it: just about everything writtten sounds like materialism veiled as religious belief. In the end, people ahve the "better them than me" attitude as they sit in their universities talking about justice and peace or complaining about the bishops talking about abortion which is a safe issue for them as an institution like the church is by its nature, 'conservative'. They pick something they know nothing can done about--so they can TALK more.
Nine years earlier, December
Nine years earlier, December 2, 1980, Sr. Dorothy Kazel, President of the Senior Class at Notre Dame Academy, Cleveland, OH, and three other women, two religious and a lay-worker, were also murdered in El Salvador. I was a member of the Class of '57, NDA and knew Dorothy. The world lost a dedicated but fun loving woman that day. I hope she will always be remembered.
John, thank you for your
John, thank you for your column. The killing goes on and on. Only the names are changed. Little children, men and women died in this never ending violence. I pray to have to courage to say no more violence, no more violence. Please God show us the way!
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