I don’t have words for the crises (yes, plural) on the border. I don’t. I’ve tried. In my disbelief, the best I’ve been able to do is to keep myself from despair and numbness. It’s like trying to stave off frostbite of the soul. I don’t know the answer to the problem, but I do know that slipping into overwhelm disables hope of finding … well, hope. Sometimes the best I can come up with is what I will not do, what I will not settle for.

I’m tired of people saying, “This is not America.” It may not be the America many of us aspire to—fair enough—but to suggest this is not who we are flies in the face of reality, past and present. We can’t fix a problem we’re unwilling to claim. It is indeed America, and it’s not the first time we’ve separated children from their families. In the founding of our country, slave families were often split as slave mothers, fathers, children were sold or “given” to other slave owners. From the late 1800s up through 1970, the US government stripped Native American children from their families and sent them to “Indian boarding schools” so that the US could “Americanize them.” Capt. Richard H. Pratt, founder of one of the schools, stated their purpose was to “kill the Indian and save the man.” During the Depression era, Mexican families on the borders were considered threats to American jobs and forced out of the US, often separating parents and children. Then we have the xenophobia of WWII where our government interred thousands of Americans of at least 1/16^th Japanese descent, including children under the age of 10 and the elderly and physically challenged. Up through today, we also have the practice termed Jane Crow, where single mothers of color are more likely than white single mothers to have their children forcibly removed from their homes by government agencies and put into foster care.

We cannot keep lying to ourselves. Nor can we look away and claim we cannot bear to watch this current situation play out. The world is too dangerous for us to turn our heads.

This is a time when spiritual warriors for peace and mercy need to step into their calling. We must train for these periods in time by not shying away from the horrors of inhumanity. We sit with the pain, the injustice, the cruelty so that we can be more effective in confronting them. Just as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee trained Civil Rights workers in the philosophical and tactical practices of nonviolence modeled by Mahatma Gandhi and others, we resist knee-jerk reactions of verbal and physical violence. We won’t give in to the temptation to demonize even the perpetrators of injustice. We ground ourselves by practicing compassion in the midst of cruelty. And because of this training, we can then step onto the front lines to embody a different way of being.

In a recent episode of On Being, host Krista Tippet spoke with Rami Nashashibi, founder and executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago, and Rev. Lucas Johnson, coordinator of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the world’s oldest interfaith peace organization. Both are committed to the spiritual discipline of nonviolence. Johnson recalled a moment that Civil Rights leader A.J. Muste experienced: “Another moment for A.J.. Must was, he was demonstrating on a picket line and the reporter came up to him and said, ‘Mr. Muste, do you believe that your demonstrating will change the country?’ And he responded by saying, ‘Young man, I’m demonstrating so that my country doesn’t change me.’ And so I think there’s this place where we have a responsibility to hold to the power of love that we know to be true and to not allow the world around us to deaden that in ourselves. And I think it’s really tempting. And not allowing that to die in ourselves is a part of what enables us to engage others in that way, but it’s a real struggle.”

The following intercessory prayer is from the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration education:

For the children who are US citizens, but live in fear of broken families because of the undocumented status of their parents, that God may bring them Hope as we work toward conversion of hearts and minds. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the teens and young adults who were brought to this country as children and have now been deported to a country they barely know, that God will be with them and guide them to reunite with their families. Let us pray to the Lord.

Recalling that Our Lord told his disciples to “let the children come to me,” that we may welcome the children of immigrants and work to provide security and dignity to the lives of their families, we pray to the Lord.

For the immigrant children who have known only this country and work hard at school, that they may know the value of their work through the support of the DREAM Act, we pray to the Lord.

For immigrant families, suffering in the shadows from poverty and brokenness, may God bless them and protect them as we all work for a reform of the immigration laws. Let us pray to the Lord.

For immigrant families searching for life and dignity, that they may find it wherever God leads them as we work together for conversion of hearts and minds. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the immigrant that faces rejection and pain in this country, that they may know the value of their life and work no matter where they live, and that they find a welcoming community here in this country. Let us pray to the Lord.

Recalling the fear that the disciples felt after the death of Jesus, may the immigrant in this country come to know the power and strength of the Holy Spirit through our welcoming embrace. Let us pray to the Lord.

That by seeing God’s presence more clearly in every human life, we may repent of the ways that we have failed to honor, protect, and welcome that life, including the life of the immigrant, we pray to the Lord.

For those fleeing the violence and corruption in their homelands of Mexico or South America, that they may find safety and security as they search for safety in a new land. Let us pray to the Lord.

That God, who always hears the cry of the oppressed and the immigrant, may enable us to hear those cries and be moved to conversion and transformation, working to reform the unjust immigration laws in this country. Let us pray to the Lord.

For God’s forgiveness for those citizens who have not been welcoming and tolerant of the immigrant in this country, that they may come to realize God’s call to welcome Christ in the immigrant. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our community, that we may come to greater understanding and acceptance of our differences, we pray to the Lord.