Will you come away and pray with me?

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The title for my blog offering this month is an adaptation of Jesus' request to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane to stay awake with him.  
I am not Jesus, who was entering into his Passion, but we know that many people in our world face the terror of crosses just as profound as his.
I have written here before about the Iraqi Dominican Sisters and Friars whom I have known for many years and of their lives filled with terror even as they care for those who are also devastated.
August 6th will be the second anniversary of the invasion of the Nineveh Plain of northern Iraq by Daesch (ISIS) and the exile of so many to the Kurdish area, Jordan and beyond.  The US Dominican Iraq Coordinating Committee (I am a member) has invited all to join in a nine day novena of prayer and solidarity for our family in Iraq.  It starts July 29 and concludes on August 6th the Feast of the Transfiguration.
Here is the novena in English:
http://domlife.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Nine-Day-Novena-in-Solidarity-with-our-Dominican-Sisters.pdf
And here in Spanish:
http://www.op.org/es/content/novena-en-solidaridad-con-nuestros-hermanos-y-hermanas-dominicos-en-irak
Please share with others…and…will you pray with me?
Roberta A. Popara, OP

North Palm Beach, FL

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