Valerie & Jean
The Nuclear Way of the Cross
A station on the Nuclear Way of the Cross
Palm Sunday vigil liturgy with Fr. Jerry Zawada, OFM
& Fr. Louis Vitale, OFM
Shadows are long and spirits soar
Dinner!
NDE Team: Megan, Shaina, Ming-san, John, Chelsea,
Marcus, & Sarah with Martin Sheen
Reflections on a Ragtag Band
by a Peace Walker
It is a bit of a ragtag band, one could say –
or one could say, it’s a bit of a nomadic beloved
community of pilgrims being called into the desert.
Imperfect humans in imperfect community – what
else could it be? We bring ourselves, our broken-nesses
– and we bring hearts abursting with a yearning
for peace, to love better, to go deeper into loving
kindness and compassion and nonviolence.
The outer pilgrimage molding this nomad band is
the Sacred Peace Walk – six days walking deeper
into the desert, walking to the Nevada Test Site
calling for an end to all nuclear weapons and the
nuclear threat which holds hostage all life on Earth.
Mornings – we drum till the sun rises over
the mountaintop, circle, plan, and are blessed and
smudged with sacred sage by Willie Fragosa. Willie
brings his willow staff which we carry and his wisdom,
reminding us that the ancestors are with us. Every
morning, he tells us again: remember, every step
is a prayer for peace.
And then we walk. Just keep putting one foot in
front of another. Right foot, left foot, right foot,
breathe. Beside us mountains, before us mountains,
behind us mountains. The desert enfolds us. We startle
a rabbit, little birds in the brush. An inch of
rainfall last year, we are told – yet the
desert lives – branches of creosote bushes
bend gracefully as a dance, a Zen study.
Journey outward, journey inward. Each pilgrim makes
their own inner path. Looking out through the eyes:
sky and desert so vast it takes your breath. The
desert makes its way into your heart and soul as
the dust makes its way into your evening soup bowl.
Looking inward behind the eyes: big sky mind, vastness
beyond words. Being called into the desert will
transform you, empty you and fill you with its own
emptiness.
We’ve dived deep into many ways of naming
Spirit: sharing Muslim evening prayer, Friday evening
Shabbat, bathing the Baby Buddha, re-hearing the
Christian and Hebrew stories of pilgrimage, of our
ancestors who were called to leave captivity, leave
the familiar, and strike out into the desert, to
places unknown. We gathered in the moonlight in
the Goddess temple and chanted around the Temple
fire – “Earth is my body – water
is my blood – air is my breath and fire is
my spirit.”
Today’s last full day of walking –
carrying our banner and flags – brought us
here, very near the gates of the Test Site. We walked
and shared the fourteen nuclear stations of the
cross, graphic images of the horrors of war, the
threat of nuclear annihilation and the daily death-dealing
of resources poured into the nuclear arsenal. Palm
Sunday mass was celebrated by Fr. Louie Vitale and
Fr. Jerry Zawada, who’ve spend months and
years of their lives in prisons for nonviolent resistance
to war. The setting was a gravel lot at the edge
of the desert, against a van covered with a banner
to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, trucks going by, Fr.
Louie’s cell phone going off at a key moment
– it worked.
And now – we are spread out across the desert’s
edge – the sun just set in unspeakable splendor
behind the western mountains and the wind has died
down. The moon is almost full and Orion hangs like
a jewel in the southern sky. Trucks still go by.
Early in the morning Corbin Harney, spiritual elder
of the Western Shoshone, whose tribal lands are
illegally occupied by the NTS, will lead us in greeting
the sun – and we’ll walk to the test
site – to keep saying No, not in our name,
not ever. It is good to be in this place.
View
April 1st Rally & Action photos
