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February 7
David Barnhart
February 07, 2025
Window painting by Angela Barnhart, 2018, Birmingham.
Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
Today is also the birthday, in 1946, of Father Gérard Jean-Juste, who was sometimes called “the Martin Luther King, Jr. of Haiti.” He was a fierce advocate for the poor of Haiti and for Haitian immigrants in Florida. He was framed for murder and spent time in prison because he opposed the military coup and U.S.-supported interim government of Haiti. He died in 2009.
Today marks the death, in 1333, of Nikkō Shōnin, Buddhist priest and disciple of Nichiren, who preserved many of Nichiren’s writings.
Reflection:
When Father Gérard Jean-Juste asked at trial about his experience with weapons, he replied:
“My rosary is my only weapon.”
Nichiren described equanimity this way:
“Worthy persons deserve to be called so because they are not carried away by the eight winds: prosperity, decline, disgrace, honor, praise, censure, suffering, and pleasure. They are neither elated by prosperity nor grieved by decline. The heavenly gods will surely protect one who is unbending before the eight winds.”
Prayer (based on the words of Father Gérard Jean-Juste):
Loving Creator,
we join our prayers with others
that justice and peace can flow
like waters around the world.
May these streams
bring a green season
where love shall prevail on earth.
Amen.